livebloggingmydescentintomadness:

tigerator:

ritavonbees:

tahtherednosedtrickster:

just-shower-thoughts:

The moral of Rudolph the Red nose reindeer is that no one likes you unless you’re useful.

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer as capitalist propaganda: discuss

rudolph was already exactly as useful as the other reindeer. the moral is deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable

Actually!

The man who created Rudolph, Robert L May, grew up a shy Jew during the Great Depression, and he was hired by the store Montgomery Ward to create a cheery story to be handed out to shoppers for Christmas. He picked a deer because his young daughter loved deer, and even though his wife died during the process and the store offered to let him off the hook, he continued because he wanted to write a story inspired by the ugly duckling, as he himself knew what it was to be an underdog, having been bullied as a child.

This article states: “Rudolph is, after all, a tale well within the humanist literary tradition of teaching tolerance. Someone is despised or persecuted for an accident of birth like their race, religion, ethnicity or apparent physical disability, then the absurdity and cruelty of discrimination is thwarted when that person (or in the case of Rudolph, an animal) shows his worth when a kindly soul gives him a chance to shine.”

And, in defiance of capitalism, Montgomery Ward ended up freely giving May ownership to the rights of Rudolph so that he was able to receive the profits for his work instead of them.

The moral of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is that we shouldn’t discriminate or bully anyone, because everyone has value.