Just in time for the holiday season, the beloved Christmas tale “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” has come under attack.
The 1964 film has been accused of racism, sexism, homophobia and numerous forms of bigotry, PJ Media reports.
And many have added their voice to the rhetoric, with HuffPost even publishing a video montage of tweets assailing the animated classic on Dec. 2.
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Through the montage, the HuffPost implies that the movie defends the bullying Rudolph and his elf friend endure.
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What these tweets and the HuffPost fail to realize is that the main message of the movie is something that social justice warriors should agree with.
But, according to the story,Rudolph and his elf friend are outcasts because they are different from the rest, but the story shows them actually saving Christmas.
And not everybody agreed with the outrage against the classic Christmas show, as others took to Twitter to express their frustrations.
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“When everybody hears this story, they start to realize maybe they were a little hard on the misfits,” Sam, the snowman, says in his commentary after the story. “Maybe misfits have a place, too. Even Santa realizes that maybe he was wrong.”
Many are accusing those that are offended of having taken the ugliest moments of the film out of context, and mislabeled the entire story.
According to Snopes, the movie “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was first intended as a children’s coloring book by department store Montgomery Ward, who would give away the books as holiday gifts to children in an effort to lure parent’s into shopping there.
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It was in 1939 when the company appointed Robert L. May as copywriter for the new coloring book that would be given out, but it would come with it’s own challenges.
May’s wife had been bedridden in her years-long battle with cancer, leaving May to care for their four-year old daughter, Barbara, while he worked on the project, frequently testing her enthusiasm on the project to predict it’s success rate.
“Taunted for his shyness and small stature in his youth, May used that experience, as well as inspiration from The Ugly Duckling story, to create the adventure of a misfit reindeer with a glowing red nose,” an article from Altogether Christmas states.
And various forms of bullying can be recognized within the story of the beloved reindeer, as May had settled on the theme of an underdog that had been ostracized by his own community due to the offense of a glowing, red nose.
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After the wide success of the project May embarked on for Montgomery Ward, he eventually obtained all rights to the character of Rudolph in 1947, and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was released in story-book form commercially.
The whole theme of Rudolph is to teach kids that they should embrace their differences, and not bully others over differences.
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