The new film Peter Rabbit, based on Beatrix Potter’s children’s book of the same name, has been receiving backlash on social media over its treatment of a character with a food allergy.
In the film, Mr. McGregor, Peter Rabbit’s enemy, passes away and his nephew Tom comes to oversee the vegetable patch and exterminate the “vermin.”
It is Tom, the villain of the film, who the audience – and Peter Rabbit – learns has an allergy to blackberries. In one scene, the rabbits throw blackberries at Tom, including one into his mouth.
Tom goes into anaphylactic shock, falls to the ground, choking, and turns red before stabbing himself with an EpiPen.
Allergy UK says the scene mocks allergy sufferers and is irresponsible.
Carla Jones, the charity’s CEO, told the Telegraph: “Anaphylaxis can and does kill. To include a scene in a children’s film that includes a serious allergic reaction and not to do it responsibly is unacceptable, as is bullying.
“Mocking allergic disease shows a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of food allergy and trivialises the challenges faced by those who live with this condition, particularly parents who live in fear of their child suffering a life threatening reaction.”
Some who feel the film is “grossly offensive” have taken to Twitter with the hashtag #boycottpeterrabbit.
A petition online asking for Sony Pictures to apologize called the scene “allergy bullying” and said that it “mocks the seriousness of allergic disease and is heartbreakingly disrespectful to the families of those that have lost loved ones to anaphylaxis.”
The petition has attracted a little over 7,000 signatures, 500 shy of its goal. ( Now over 8000. )
But while many have come out in support of the boycott, there have been dissenters, however, who have called the concerned parents “snowflakes.”
http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2...er-rabbit-film-over-allergy-bullying.amp.html
In the film, Mr. McGregor, Peter Rabbit’s enemy, passes away and his nephew Tom comes to oversee the vegetable patch and exterminate the “vermin.”
It is Tom, the villain of the film, who the audience – and Peter Rabbit – learns has an allergy to blackberries. In one scene, the rabbits throw blackberries at Tom, including one into his mouth.
Tom goes into anaphylactic shock, falls to the ground, choking, and turns red before stabbing himself with an EpiPen.
Allergy UK says the scene mocks allergy sufferers and is irresponsible.
Carla Jones, the charity’s CEO, told the Telegraph: “Anaphylaxis can and does kill. To include a scene in a children’s film that includes a serious allergic reaction and not to do it responsibly is unacceptable, as is bullying.
“Mocking allergic disease shows a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of food allergy and trivialises the challenges faced by those who live with this condition, particularly parents who live in fear of their child suffering a life threatening reaction.”
Some who feel the film is “grossly offensive” have taken to Twitter with the hashtag #boycottpeterrabbit.
A petition online asking for Sony Pictures to apologize called the scene “allergy bullying” and said that it “mocks the seriousness of allergic disease and is heartbreakingly disrespectful to the families of those that have lost loved ones to anaphylaxis.”
The petition has attracted a little over 7,000 signatures, 500 shy of its goal. ( Now over 8000. )
But while many have come out in support of the boycott, there have been dissenters, however, who have called the concerned parents “snowflakes.”
http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2...er-rabbit-film-over-allergy-bullying.amp.html
