Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 32, Ed. 1 Friday, December 22, 2006 Page: 32 of 72
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view points
We'll never think of Rudolph the same way
A new generation sees the Christinas classic
about misfits through enlightened eyes
Like any red-blooded, middle-
class American lesbian moms,
we spend the month of
December decorating, overeat-
ing, shopping, visiting relatives
and watching holiday television
on DVD.
We started with a bang on Dec.
1 by watching the original stop-
motion "Rudolph the Red-nosed
Reindeer" at our 11-year-old
daughter's request. She thought it
would be a memorable begin-
ning to the 2006 holiday season.
Well, you could say that —
we're not likely to forget that this was the year it
was mere seconds into the movie before the
social commentary started.
The older two were aghast that Donner was so
critical of his newborn son and that Santa was
red-nosed intolerant, and I couldn't help pointing
out that not only was Hermie a dentist wanna-be,
he had clearly been a theater major in elf college,
and with that hair was probably playing for our
team. Maybe that was why he would "never fit
in"
This was when my wife suggested we were
ruining it for our three year-old (so I shut up and
started taking notes). But even he said, "Santa is
not a nice guy," when Santa told Donner he
"should be ashamed of himself' because his son
was different than all the rest.
It was around then that it dawned on me that
our kids thought this was some kind of ridiculous
lampoon, rather than a reflection of the judg-
ment, conformity and strict separations of race,
class and gender that we, their parents, grew up
with.
It was unfathomable to them, living in our
lovely, liberal bubble, that there was a time when
being unique was intolerable, girls had to wear
dresses to public school, boys were beaten for
shedding tears and shaming was considered a
powerful and effective tool for disciplining chil-
dren.
My wife and I had been in blissful ignorance
of the bigotry in "Rudolph the Red-nosed
Reindeer" when we first revisited it 15 years ago
with our oldest. We were full of childhood mem-
ories, all ready to sing along with, "Why am I
such a misfit," only to have our jaws drop at how
the misfits are treated by Christmas Town and
A Sk
if
Bereb deMotier
Special Contributor
how Santa runs his workshop
without an EEO policy, an HR
rep to mediate on Hermie's behalf
or diversity training for the elves.
So while we were ever-so-
aware when we popped
"Rudolph" into the VCR it was a
big year for revelation among our
children.
Our 11-year-old asked, "Why
are the girls all standing around?"
when the young bucks were
learning to fly. I told her, "This
was before Title 9."
Our 15-year-old son could
hardly believe the Coach Comet character,
encouraging all the other bucks to ostracize
Rudolph after he was "outed" during practice
with the loss of his false nose.
44
"The older two were aghast that Donner
was so critical of his newborn son and
that Santa was red-nosed intolerant,
and I couldn't help pointing out that not
only was Hermie a dentist wanna-be,
he had clearly been a theater major in
elf college, and with that hair was
probably playing for our team. Maybe
that was why he would "never fit in."
55
I think my own budding feminism was fed
back in 1970 by lines like, "This is man's work,"
and "The important thing was to get the women
back to Christmas Town."
If I'd owned a bra, I would have burned it,
though my wife says she'd watched it without a
single rebellious thought as a child, numbly nod-
ding her head to Burl Ives' voice.
Admittedly, I've watched it too many times
over the years — maybe our whole family has.
Even our 3-year-old can quote it extemporane-
ously and do the voices of the mocking reindeer,
the brutish elf boss and the Abominable Snow
Monster of the North — who, by the way, seems
like yet another misfit reject from Christmas
Town, crying sour grapes and hating everything
about Christmas to protect his fragile ego.
Misfits are the appeal of "Rudolph the Red-
nosed Reindeer," whether we identify with
Rudolph, Hermie, Yukon Cornelius (with his life
sustaining supplies of "cornmeal and gunpowder,
ham hocks and guitar strings") or the
Abominable Snowman (who was surely scarier
when I was 5, lying on two-inch avocado shag
carpeting in Los Angeles, than for kids today
who've seen the World Trade Center Towers fall,
dinosaurs come to life in "Jurassic Park" and
have lock-downs at school because of armed
meth addicts in the neighborhood).
But every kid feels like a misfit at some time
or another. We've all felt like we belonged on
another planet or the Island of Misfit Toys (and
spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong
with the little red-haired doll).
We've all wanted to run away and hide when
our difference was causing pain, and an island
full of toys is an appealing oasis.
Though why King Moonrazer thinks Santa
can find homes for the misfit toys when he
knows Rudolph has run away from Santa's big-
otry — like a homeless gay teen escaping his
self-righteous rejecting parents — is beyond me.
Not that I take Rudolph so seriously;: I could-
n't resist remarking to my kids that Hermie the
dentist and runaway Rudolph were "bucking the
system" by being independent together. Like any
red-blooded American kids, they ignored me.
Beren deMotier is a freelance writer Ihing in
Portland, Oregon, with her three children, her
wife of 20 years and a Labrador retriver. Her
writing appears in Curve, Prideparenting.com,
ehow.com and on her Web site, www.bei-ende-
motier.com.
E-mail deMotierticpmc&stMet
knowledgeable
sources
44
"I'm blown away. You never
know what to expect.'
Councilman Etf Oakley
about the turnout for
the kick off of his
mayoral campaign
55
44
"He'll do what he says he will'
Imogeme Oakley Martin, mother
of mayoral candidate'
Councilman Ed Oakley
55
44
"It's not something that I'm proud of,
and I hope everyone reading this will
realize that whether it's holidays or
what have you, we
cannot be shooting
off guns."
Dallas lawyer Roger
hterrera, about being.con-
victed of illegally discharging
a weapon on Mexican
Independence Bay in tQOt
55
32 I dallasvoice.com I 12.22.06
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 23, No. 32, Ed. 1 Friday, December 22, 2006, newspaper, December 22, 2006; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth238940/m1/32/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.