Rudolph: a homosexual metaphor?

[the G-man]

From the Grinch thread:

the G-man wrote:

---

Rudolph is still good but I must admit to cringing at exactly how nasty both Santa and Rudolph's dad are in the early scenes.

Warped9 wrote:

---

^^ I just watched Rudulph the other night and I was reminded of the same thing. Santa and Donner don't come off at all well in the beginning.

If you think about it (and so as not to derail the Grinch thread), the entire Rudolph cartoon comes off as a not very subtle metaphor for homosexuality:

• Rudolph is born different. His macho father can't accept it. He even tries to get Rudolph to "stop" having a shiny red nose.
  
  His mother is more understanding, but unwilling to stand up for her son against society and her husband. She is reduced, somewhat, to half-hearted attempts at chiding Rudolph's father and getting Rudolph interested in "does," such as Clarice, the girl next door,
  
  Rudolph gets ostracized from others at "school" (reindeer games) for his differences and his inability at traditional male activities. Eventually, he ends up with only one friend: Hermie (short for "Hermes," aka "Eros," aka the God of Love) a mincing elf who couldn't be gayer if played by Paul Lynde after a three-way with Charles Nelson Riley and Liberace.
  
  The two decide to go off together, realizing that they are "different" and don't fit in to the "traditional" society.
  
  Rudolph, in leaving, also leaves behind, in essence rejecting, the doe.
  
  In their travels, they are menaced by a giant "man eater", the Bumble, whose mouth looks like a vagina with teeth.
  
  In their efforts to avoid being trapped by the vagina, Rudolph and Herme join up with, Yukon Cornelius, a middle aged, single, man with a lot of dogs, who looks like a reject from "the Village People."
  
  Yukon and his two young male friends end up on an island surrounded by a fiery glow (Fire Island was a popular gay community in the 60s). There, they meet others like them, most notably a clown who was as gay as Paul Lynde, a pink spotted elephant and a doll who had no discernable "defect" unless she was a lesbian.
  
  (And don't get me started that the "king" of island was basically a "fairy lion" named, get this, "King MOONracer"...they might as well have named him "King Butt Pirate")
  
  However, eventually, Rudolph realizes that he wants to stand up and be himself at home (ie, come out of the closet).
  
  Before entering society, however. He finds out that he needs to confront to his family (again, the first step in his coming out). However, he finds out that his family is still embracing the female doe and, in fact, have been captured by the giant vagina.
  
  
  Rudolph tries to put up a fight. However, it looks lost until...the mincing elf and the reject from the Village People appear and defeat the vagina for him!
  
  So, with the giant vagina defeated, Rudolph heads home to apologies ..and a noticably chaste relationship with the Clarice)
  
  
  In fact, if you watch the cartoon carefully, Rudolph's nose doesn't throb and glow around the females. But does around the males.
  
  Then, who should show up but the mincing elf, the reject from the village people, and the now-defanged vagina, who wants a job "erecting" Christmas trees,
  
  Finally, even Santa comes to accept his own latent homosexuality. For the entire special, he was thin and cranky and wore earth tones. But, at the end, after accepting Rudolph, he immediately swelled up and his red cylindrical hat (with a round tip at the end) stood up straight...and his first stop was to the fiery island with Rudolph to introduce the other "misfits" back into society.
  
  And off they go, with Rudolph in the lead, while eight other reindeer and Santa are "riding his tail"...

[J. Allen]

You've been thinking about gay reindeer far too much for any good to come of this.

[Owain Taggart]

I think it says more about racism in general as that was a hot topic when it was made.

[Nardpuncher]

I think if you massage the parts of many 'outsider' type stories you can make them about homosexuality.
We could try it with Star Wars. Maybe someone already has!

[Warped9]

You are waay over thinking this. And Rudolph doesn't reject the does as is proved in the end. It could be interpreted as being about racism, bur I don't think thats what was intended. The TV special is based off a song by Johnny Marks which was originally compose back in 1949. And the song was based on the original poem.

[The Evil Dead]

Sometimes a shiny red nose is just a shiny red nose.

[Frontier]

My word. "Hyper-analyze" seems to be an understatement. LOL.

[bigdaddy]

The Evil Dead wrote:

---

Sometimes a shiny red nose is just a shiny red nose.

What do you mean?!? I always thought his red nose was really a metaphor for penis!

I'm starting to think that the OP has a crush on a made up reindeer.

[Balrog]

No. But you can be sure that head elf was an antidentite.

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Haha thats funny, and it kind of fits. But I think it's a more of a general "outsider" parable, which of course homosexuality is part of, as is race, religion, etc etc.

[Avalon]

the G-man wrote:

---

Eventually, he ends up with only one friend: Hermie (short for "Hermes," aka "Eros," aka the God of Love)

Uh...Hermes isn't Eros. Hermes and Mercury are the same "messenger of the gods", and while they represent a lot of things, love isn't one of them. Eros would equal Cupid, representing love.

[the G-man]

Avalon wrote:

---

Hermes and Mercury are the same "messenger of the gods", and while they represent a lot of things, love isn't one of them.

Apparently, you've never received an FTD flower arrangment.

But, yeah, you make a good point. Obviously, therefore, Hermie was short for Hermaphroditus, the mythological "female boy."

Still fits.

[propita]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Pinocchio was actually a wooden sex toy (with an appendage that grows) built by Geppetto so he could have “a boy of his own."

[BillJ]

Think the OP has spent to much time over-analyzing fictional reindeer.

[Brent]

can't we just enjoy kids shows anymore