The thing with Rudolph...

[conuly]

I know the message we're supposed to take from that song. Sometimes, people are mean, and make fun of others because they're different. But that doesn't make the different one less valuable - differences are just that. They don't have to be defects. We can all relate to that at some level, can't we?

Pity it's not the message I ever actually took from that song. The message I got was "If you're different, people will make fun of you (well, I already knew that). But if you're useful to them, they'll crowd around you and pretend to be nice, just so long as you're useful (I kinda knew that too)."

Wonder what happened to Rudolph when the fog cleared up? Bet everybody retreated into their old ways again, real fast. And as soon as it got foggy, there they'd be, asking him so nicely to do a favor "because we're friends".

And Santa was just as bad. He didn't step in and make his anthromorphic reindeer behave. He didn't tell them that being cruel is, well, cruel. He only cared about Rudolph for what he could do, not for the fact that he was being tormented everyday. He's in a position of power, and he does nothing. Great example. You can't trust the grown-ups, because the grown-ups, too, only see what's useful for them to see.

...

It just may be that I overthought this song as a kid, but it really creeped me out then, and now.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I viewed it the same way... Rudolph gets tormented, then he becomes temporarily useful and people act nicely to him, while you know they're all secretly annoyed and hate having to have him in the lead, but they need to put up with it for this one day of the year. But none of the reindeers liked him and neither did Santa.

[xydexx.livejournal.com]

*ponysnuzzles* Very good point. I never thought of it that way.

[zannechaos.livejournal.com]

... You and I have the same opinion on Christmas music.

I love Rudolph, but that song is so heartbreaking. (And dammit, I love me some carols and the Little Drummer Boy and I sometimes sing them in the middle of the summer when I'm alone just because I can...)

Rudolph's Revenge!!!

[beetlebomb.livejournal.com]

BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAAAAAH!!!






Poor Rudolph! This post has really inspired me! I've also cross-posted it to trout_slaps!

Re: Rudolph's Revenge!!!

[beetlebomb.livejournal.com]

Oops, that's troutslaps! No space between letters!

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm glad that I take things at face value and don't get meanings out of stuff without looking for them. Because as a child I didn't take any message from Rudolph or any of that stuff. If you don't tell me things directly, I'm not going to learn them.

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

Santa is a creepy, overwight, fetishitc elf with a facist sense of justice and a crew of faerie and animal slaves. If he were real, he would be the stuff of nightmares(*) and not joy.

----------
* = Actually, in his shadow-incarnation as Krampus, he WAS the stuff of nightmares for "bad" little boys and girls...

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

I liked Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a kid, because I was the one who was always "out" and "different," and the song is about fitting in and being accepted and how your differences can turn into your strengths.

Yes, I suppose it's also about co-opting the strange people when they're economically useful, but when you are six years old and can't understand why nobody likes you, the one thing you would like more than anything else for Christmas is to have people like you and want you around, without having to hide your differences.

[conuly]

That's the situation I was in at that age, except that I didn't want to be friends with most of them, I just didn't want to be completely disliked. It's unpleasant.

And I still didn't like the song. Maybe I was more cynical than you?

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Im not alone?oh my, thank god, i thaught i was alone! a least on the hating ruldoph thing anyway

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I always had a similar cynical reaction to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Also to "My Boyfriend's Back."

[sunnydecho.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing about that song. It upset me.

[leora.livejournal.com]

I viewed it the same way... Rudolph gets tormented, then he becomes temporarily useful and people act nicely to him, while you know they're all secretly annoyed and hate having to have him in the lead, but they need to put up with it for this one day of the year. But none of the reindeers liked him and neither did Santa.

[xydexx.livejournal.com]

*ponysnuzzles* Very good point. I never thought of it that way.

[zannechaos.livejournal.com]

... You and I have the same opinion on Christmas music.

I love Rudolph, but that song is so heartbreaking. (And dammit, I love me some carols and the Little Drummer Boy and I sometimes sing them in the middle of the summer when I'm alone just because I can...)

Rudolph's Revenge!!!

[beetlebomb.livejournal.com]

BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAAAAAH!!!






Poor Rudolph! This post has really inspired me! I've also cross-posted it to trout_slaps!

Re: Rudolph's Revenge!!!

[beetlebomb.livejournal.com]

Oops, that's troutslaps! No space between letters!

[eofs.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm glad that I take things at face value and don't get meanings out of stuff without looking for them. Because as a child I didn't take any message from Rudolph or any of that stuff. If you don't tell me things directly, I'm not going to learn them.

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

Santa is a creepy, overwight, fetishitc elf with a facist sense of justice and a crew of faerie and animal slaves. If he were real, he would be the stuff of nightmares(*) and not joy.

----------
* = Actually, in his shadow-incarnation as Krampus, he WAS the stuff of nightmares for "bad" little boys and girls...

[mortaine.livejournal.com]

I liked Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a kid, because I was the one who was always "out" and "different," and the song is about fitting in and being accepted and how your differences can turn into your strengths.

Yes, I suppose it's also about co-opting the strange people when they're economically useful, but when you are six years old and can't understand why nobody likes you, the one thing you would like more than anything else for Christmas is to have people like you and want you around, without having to hide your differences.

[conuly]

That's the situation I was in at that age, except that I didn't want to be friends with most of them, I just didn't want to be completely disliked. It's unpleasant.

And I still didn't like the song. Maybe I was more cynical than you?

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Im not alone?oh my, thank god, i thaught i was alone! a least on the hating ruldoph thing anyway

[sparkofcreation.livejournal.com]

I always had a similar cynical reaction to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." Also to "My Boyfriend's Back."

[sunnydecho.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing about that song. It upset me.