2018: when a bunny can offend and outrage

PETER Rabbit’s being threatened with a boycott over insensitive treatment of food allergies. Wile E Coyote would never have survived this climate of easy outrage, writes Louise Roberts.

BACK in an era where you had to get off your backside to change the TV channel, Wile E Coyote would fall off a cliff and survive.

Before bed, with freshly shampooed hair and in my cotton PJs, I was transfixed by the Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the Road Runner and the eternally daft canine who died and survived on loop.

Sure, the coyote would wind up shaped like an accordion or with an ACME anvil wedged in his head but as kids we howled with laughter.

It wasn’t real, it wasn’t advocating violence. It was silly and over the top. It wasn’t racist, patronising or promoting drug use and bullying.

We didn’t need an intervention by the thought police lest we go to school the next day and brutalise our classmates by strapping a rocket to our back and roller skates on our feet.

Today, though, someone would surely be offended.

And even within a serious topic such as with food allergies, there has to be a deluge of blowhards nit-picking and brewing offence where none is intended.

Peter Rabbit, who featured in the Beatrix Potter storybook classic loved by millions, is the latest childhood icon mired in controversy.

Allow me to fill you in on the fairy tale. The bunny and his fuzzy family were left fatherless after the wife of a cranky farmer Mr McGregor baked Peter Rabbit Snr into a pie.

Thankfully, Peter Rabbit doesn’t have a Twitter account, or he’d be being flamed right now. (Pic: Sony)

So in the new chapter, McGregor dies and the estate passes to his great nephew Tom who is keen to sell up and make a profit, meaning the rabbits plus their pals the pig and hedgehog have to clear out.

The latest Sony adaptation features live actors and computer-generated animals and in the ensuing turf war, the aggrieved bunnies slingshot human Tom with blackberries.

He is allergic to them so is forced to reach for his EpiPen to stave off an anaphylactic attack. Tom fails and collapses. And when he appears to be dead for a moment, the rabbits cheer.

Australian group Global Anaphylaxis Awareness and Inclusivity (Globalaai) was quick to the bandwagon of outrage, launching a petition demanding Sony apologise, branding the scene as “socially irresponsible”.

“This mocks the seriousness of allergic disease and is heartbreakingly disrespectful to the families of those that have lost loved ones to anaphylaxis,” the petition read.

“To spread a message that condones such victimising and dangerous behaviour among children is grossly offensive to worldwide viewers, especially those who live with severe allergic disease.”

Meanwhile Kenneth Mendez, the president and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, wrote to the studio urging them to “examine your portrayal of bullying in your films geared toward a young audience.”

And there’s no real fury without a hashtag so #boycottpeterrabbit cranked up, the end result being a rapid joint apology from Sony and the filmmakers that “food allergies are a serious issue”.

They should “not have made light” of a character being allergic “even in a cartoonish, slapstick way” and “sincerely regret not being more aware and sensitive to this issue, and we truly apologise”.

Domhnall Gleeson was insensitively pelted with blackberries while playing Mr McGregor in Peter Rabbit. (Pic: Emma McIntyre/Getty)

In the spirit of disclosure, I am allergic to oysters but the slippery, sinewy lumps of seafood won’t kill me, just bring me out in an attractive head to toe rash.

So knowing that a certain food can be fatal to you would be utterly terrifying. I know kids and adults who face an everyday logistical challenge of finding safe food.

But we are talking about two nemeses in a movie plot and in the swirl of outrage, the Peter Rabbit movie is now apparently about promoting bullying.

It is a sad state of affairs when a cartoon bunny is top of your hit list.

The filmmakers themselves initially described it as an ‘irreverent, contemporary comedy with attitude.”

And it seems to be that danger lurks in every corner, and the critics will not only find it but exploit it and blow it wide open to the point that it takes on a life of its own.

Every book, movie and TV show is open to re-interpretation. Last year Netflix had to pull an episode of Maya The Bee after viewers alleged they saw a sketch of a penis in the background footage. Who goes looking for that kind of stuff?

To play devil’s advocate, victim support groups could come out in defence of the rabbits, saying they were pushed to their act of reckless violence because they were driven mad by their grief.

Where is the sympathy for these poor fatherless creatures who had to sit by and watch the crime of murder go unchecked?

Won’t somebody think of the children! These guys are displaying a blatant disregard for road rules.

Suddenly we are launched into a debate about animal cruelty, murder, lack of legal rights for rabbits and even sentencing laws.

Will we next ban Winnie the Pooh because he steals honey from bee hives — knowing that bees are under threat — or because excess sugar consumption can result in obesity?

Or should Tigger be banned because he is just too ‘up’ and too ‘bouncy’ and an affront to people with ADD or ADHD?

Should we wipe the romance between Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy from the history book because it is confusing to children that a frog and a pig could live happily ever after?

Or the Muppets’ Swedish chef, whose heavily accented mutterings might be construed as offensive towards to Swedes?

This is nothing more than a movie, designed to entertain. It’s not real life, it’s not even trying to masquerade as real life.

I only wonder how many of those parents who signed the petition looked in their little darling’s video games and checked on every second of those.

I wonder if they are OK with the violence and law breaking that so many of these games pass off as fun.

No one is dismissing the seriousness of food allergies.

But we need to fight the fight in the right place. Peter Rabbit’s briar patch is definitely not ringing my danger bells.

@whatlouthinks

Originally published as 2018: when a bunny can offend and outrage