On the Naughty List
Christmas is a time when family, friends and several generations somehow come together to enjoy themselves. So one night over the Christmas break we decided to watch a film appealing to all generations namely ‘Elf’ released in 2003. A children’s comedy, which could not possibly cause offence, or so we thought. You could not be more wrong.
I have never seen such an egregious example of statements that undermine the principles of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE). In the film, elves are depicted as living at the North Pole under the ideology of Elfism whose leader is the dictator Santa Claus. Elves, who are short, are restricted to only three areas of work: making shoes, toys and for some reasons making cookies in a tree. This is a blatant example of shortism. Furthermore humans are prohibited from living at the North Pole, which is non-inclusive and goes against every principle of DIE.
Elfism is further defined by the Code of the Elves, which states: There is room for everyone on the Nice List. They also have a Naughty List. But the fundamental question is who decides who can be on the Nice List or the Naughty List? This sounds like only those people who adhere to the right forms of behaviour, speech and thought can be included on the Nice List while those who don’t are condemned to the Naughty List. Again, an example of exclusion. For those who wish to learn more about the DIE principles please contact Harvard University.
The final insult was that Santa Claus was depicted as a man. This also suggests that as Santa was a dictator then only men can be dictators. Why can’t any self-identified being, even a cat, be a dictator? Need I say more.
Given the manifest examples of discrimination in ‘Elf’ I would urge Netflix to include prominently the following Trigger Warning before the film starts:
‘In this film there are some expressions and depictions of prejudices that were commonplace in society at the time it was made. These prejudices were wrong then and are wrong today. We are showing this film as it was originally made because to make changes would be the same as pretending these prejudices never existed even though we are talking of pretend mythical beings.’