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Autistic woman removed from Cinema and called "retarded"

I've been attending Cineworld screenings as an Aspie for several years and have never had a problem, but I am not female.

What's that ^^^ got to do with anything?



After reading this thread, my decision (made decades ago) not to go to the cinema ever again is reinforced.

What a waste of money paying to listen to someone in the audience whooping, cheering, yelling and laughing.

If she was dragged out, that's not right, but I agree that she should be made to leave. It wasn't a private screening just for her birthday. Other people had paid to watch the film and that woman wasn't part of the 'entertainment' the rest of the audience paid for.
 
Link.

I just read this and was like, WTH?! People were actually applauding as the woman was dragged from her seat!

She was called a retard and other insulting names by hecklers, how is this even legal?!

I've been attending Cineworld screenings as an Aspie for several years and have never had a problem, but I am not female.

Thanks, Rich for promoting such an interesting subject and so real-life current. I think that you would agree that numerous points have been brought up. Such a rich discussion. I’m proud to be an active V.I.P member with such a great group of thoughtful people. Thank you to everyone. I guess I would challenge everyone to reconsider using the three-letter acronym that has been seen twice in this thread and I have seen in other areas of the site. It is considered a lazy verbal shortcut and could be seen as deligitimizing the subject. In addition, some may see it as vulgar and a poor way to discribe how one feels. I am always impressed with the creativity in which topics are brought up and with the depth in which the topics are explored. I appreciate each one. My motive is pure and an attempt to challenge us all.
 
What's that ^^^ got to do with anything?



After reading this thread, my decision (made decades ago) not to go to the cinema ever again is reinforced.

What a waste of money paying to listen to someone in the audience whooping, cheering, yelling and laughing.

If she was dragged out, that's not right, but I agree that she should be made to leave. It wasn't a private screening just for her birthday. Other people had paid to watch the film and that woman wasn't part of the 'entertainment' the rest of the audience paid for.

No, just, no.

She clearly can't help how she is behaving, should she be punished for that? IMO no.
 
No, just, no.

She clearly can't help how she is behaving, should she be punished for that? IMO no.

That is NOT the point! She knew how her challenges would affect others. She is not “low spectrum.” How selfish is it to know that one has very disruptive traits (at her age, I am sure she is fully aware of that) and knowing full well that it’s going to upset others? Rent it and have a friendly gathering at home. The world is a hostile place, even to NT people. Let’s not be the poster child for showing disabled people or autistic people in any worse public opinion.

You are saying that an entire theater should be disrupted ? They paid their money to watch a film. Not sit there and be disrupted by one person who is ruining the entire experience. Whether she can “help it” or not, it not reasonable to expect this.
 
Is she aware that her behavior was inappropriate? Can she learn in the off chance she didn't know? I'm willing to wager on a "yes" for both of those questions. Nobody gets a free pass to be problematic and unwilling to correct their mistakes. You can pout, scream and hold your breath until your face turns multiple shades of lipstick red, but sorry - you don't get to act as you please without the potential for consequences.

I can agree with others who said that the situation could have been handled better overall, too-late-for-that as it may be. As for the "adults" spouting schoolyard garbage (since that's somehow newsworthy :rolleyes:), that's a reflection of their character and their lack of impulse control. Not surprising for a first-world country with first-world problems and first-world privileges, nothing new there.

What's even more shocking about all this though: people will forget about this in a week if not sooner, the woman will have learned something from this and gotten over it, and everyone will be able to enjoy the next movie in (relative) peace.
 
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I can only say that this is indicative of a social convention that has existed for some 50 years in the US. That if a person is being overtly disruptive to both patrons and the proprietor of a business, the social custom is to ask that person to either cease and desist, or simply be ejected from the premises.

As to whether the cause of such a disruption is voluntary or involuntary doesn't matter. Is a proprietor reacting to such a thing ultimately a violation of one's civil rights? Not likely. At least not here. When your conduct offends others, expect to get "the bum's rush". With no consideration of entitlement.

"No shirt, no shoes, no service." With the emphasis on the concept itself being non-discriminatory in the event someone is being fundamentally disruptive. Though whether such a thing is truly customary or not in the UK I can't say.
 
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No, just, no.

She clearly can't help how she is behaving, should she be punished for that? IMO no.

The key point of your post 'in YOUR opinion' - which you are entitled to.

However, others are also entitled to an opinion and the majority appear to agree that the behaviour displayed was not appropriate to the arena in which it took place.

To reiterate, I do not condone anyone being dragged out of anywhere, but I also do not agree that someone should be permitted to spoil the enjoyment of lots of other paying customers. They should be (and were) made to leave.

I noticed you sidestepped my question about your comment in your first post

but I am not female.

What has that got to do with anything?
 
When I know my presence will be disruptive to others, I usually refrain from being around others.
I won’t go to a movie or a concert if I have bad gas, because even if I can’t help farting like a steamboat, I don’t want to ruin other people’s enjoyment of that evening.
Same for having a bad cough, being overly excited, and I’d say that goes for diarrhea of the mouth too.

To me, it’s just about being considerate towards other movie goers. Having a disability does not make you entitled to special treatment everywhere and doesn’t give you a free pass to be inconsiderate. I expect fair treatment, not special treatment.
 
Link.

Huffingtonpost.co.uk article said:
On Sunday, the 29th of April, I was dragged out of the BFI screening of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly for laughing loudly at the film’s wicked sense of humour.


It was the evening after my 25th birthday. I had been excited for over a month to see my current favourite movie ever. I had rounded up a couple of friends to go and see this movie with me and had hoped that they would understand me better from watching the film, as I had related strongly to the protagonist, Tuco Ramirez, a feisty, impulsive and funny outlaw. As I came into the theatre I whooped with joy and yelled, “I’m so excited!”. I promised myself that I wouldn’t comment on the film or imitate the character’s laugh. I would just let myself be immersed in the film. So I tried not to talk, but the ensuing complications made it difficult, and finally, impossible.


For the first half hour I was happily enjoying the film. Then the film got to the gun shop scene. I found the scene funny because Eli Wallach, who played Tuco, was improvising with gun parts. Wallach hated guns and had no use for them. It was the timing and expressions that made it so funny and I was laughing raucously. Then I heard a man shouting, “Shut up, *****!”, and another man yelling, “It’s not that funny!” This really shocked me.


Later the audience started laughing at something else. I felt it was hypocritical because they got upset at me for laughing. I mimicked the man who verbally abused me. As one Facebook commenter pointed out, “she’s not blameless”. Of course I wasn’t but I was still upset at what he had said. I have been brought up to stand up for myself.

The staff kept coming up to me and telling me to keep it down. I was surprised at this and annoyed because I was distracted from enjoying the film. The manager told me to laugh less loudly, and I told her I didn’t understand. If I found something funny, I laughed. The man sitting next to me said, “Why are you laughing at all the cruel parts?” I said, “They’re cruel, but funny.” He protested and I said, “Each to their own.” He also said, “There’s four hundred of us and only one of you.”

At a scene in the missionary, the audience laughed at something again. I laughed along with them and then said, a little louder than I had intended, “It wasn’t that funny.” This was my final warning. The staff came back in. My friends who were watching the film with me tried to defend me to the staff. Two security guards came and tried to ask me to leave, but I wouldn’t, I wanted to finish the film. They pulled me out of my seat without a chance to go back for my bag, and frogmarched me to the exit. The crueler audience members applauded my departure. I apologised to everyone, I honestly admitted that I didn’t mean it, and the ones closest to me said, “Yeah, right.” As I got to the door I said, “I can’t help it, I’m autistic.” A man shouted back, “You’re retarded!” I was dragged to the security office and not allowed back into the theatre. I was distraught that I wasn’t going to finish the film that I loved so much and that I had ruined my own enjoyment of the film as well as everyone else’s. The manager said, “If you’d told us, this wouldn’t have happened.” How could I have known?

I also had no idea that the BFI had etiquette for how you’re supposed to react to a film.

A Twitter user recently complained that my “disability isn’t very apparent”. This presents three problems with society. First, the whole point of autism is that it’s a neurological condition, so it’s not supposed to be apparent.

Second, it’s the 21st Century and there are still stereotypes about autism: a little boy flapping his hands, a young man hitting his head against the wall, etc.

Finally, society fears what it doesn’t understand. And it’s always going to take donkey’s years, or more accurately tortoise’s years, to process that certain types of people are different from others. It’s always going to mature much slower than individual people precisely because of those fears.

This makes it more difficult to make changes for the better and ensure that something like this never happens again, although the feat is not impossible.

Why hadn’t it happened before, though? Last year, at the BFI, I laughed that loudly through Seven Samurai, and I never got in trouble.

I suppose it depends on how a film is perceived. Both Seven Samurai and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly have great humour, although I suppose the latter is viewed with the gravity of one of Leone’s other films, Once Upon a Time in the West.

I thought it was well known that The Good, the Bad and the Ugly did have lots of humour, and in places one usually doesn’t expect. I didn’t realise that some people would take it seriously.

Autistic people are judged in public all the time. But children are more easily forgiven than adults. People seem to think that autism ends at adulthood, but since adults are expected to restrain themselves more and hide everything different about them, their treatment is more harsh, more unforgiving and more judgemental. And they’re surprised, every single time, when an autistic adult openly expresses themselves just because they act how they feel.

I think that to make sure something like this never happens again, society needs to stop fearing what it doesn’t understand, and they need to stop fearing being judged themselves.
.

Long article, I just copied and pasted it in case anyone didn't wanna click the link.
 
The woman did admit she knew she was loud and excitable. when she enjoyed things, or when with friends. She said that in the first link article. I don’t know what she expected to happen, but she knew about disruptive behavior.

Any odd behavior is always going to illicit responses from humans in society. I am pretty sure she had time to react to initial first negative comments from theater goers.

First, the angry stares focused on her. She might not have noticed.

Then the comments by those sitting closest:

“Be quiet.”

“Hey, what is wrong with you? Be quiet!”

“Hey there, shut up!”

“Hey! It’s not funny! Why you laughing?”

As more and more people complained,it got louder, angrier, and rude:

“Hey, shut the F- up!”
“Hey, what are you- retarded-????”
“Hey A- hole, Shut the F up!!!!!!!!”

“You have GOT to leave!!!!”

As these comments became more frequent, did she stop her disruptions? No.

She CHOSE to keep on disrupting UNTIL management was called into the darkened theater. No one is discussing just how long it took for management to be called- five minutes? (1 minute would have been too much for me)

She got plenty of warnings first and kept on disrupting. Her friends did not stop her either. Then, management probably told her to please stop first, and she got disagreeable, so was asked to leave. Even if they understood she had aspergers, from a business point, one disabled customer cannot disrupt a theater full of other paying customers.

Read or listen to how Temple Grandin grew up. She is living proof of how it is possible to teach children with disabling aspbergers not to grow up engaging with bad behaviors. On top of it, then “play” the disability card when being called out on bad behaviors.

The Cinema management was not in the wrong here.
 
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The woman did admit she knew she was loud and excitable. when she enjoyed things, or when with friends. She said that in the first link article. I don’t know what she expected to happen, but she knew about disruptive behavior.

Any odd behavior is always going to illicit responses from humans in society. I am pretty sure she had time to react to initial first negative comments from theater goers.

First, the angry stares focused on her. She might not have noticed.

Then the comments by those sitting closest:

“Be quiet.”

“Hey, what is wrong with you? Be quiet!”

“Hey there, shut up!”

“Hey! It’s not funny! Why you laughing?”

As more and more people complained,it got louder, angrier, and rude:

“Hey, shut the F- up!”
“Hey, what are you- retarded-????”
“Hey A- hole, Shut the F up!!!!!!!!”

“You have GOT to leave!!!!”

As these comments became more frequent, did she stop her disruptions? No.

She CHOSE to keep on disrupting UNTIL management was called into the darkened theater. No one is discussing just how long it took for management to be called- five minutes? (1 minute would have been too much for me)


She got plenty of warnings first and kept on disrupting. Her friends did not stop her either. Then, management probably told her to please stop first, and she got disagreeable, so was asked to leave. Even if they understood she had aspergers, from a business point, one disabled customer cannot disrupt a theater full of other paying customers.

Read or listen to how Temple Grandin grew up. She is living proof of how it is possible to teach children with disabling aspbergers not to grow up engaging with bad behaviors. On top of it, then “play” the disability card when being called out on bad behaviors.

The Cinema management was not in the wrong here.

If a customer refuses to leave, you send for the Police, you do NOT take the matter into your own hands and physically drag the customer from their seat.
 
If a customer refuses to leave, you send for the Police, you do NOT take the matter into your own hands and physically drag the customer from their seat.

Of course! Not disagreeing there. However, in the USA, police are way more violent than that with people who do not cooperate. It could have been much worse for the woman.
 
Similar thread merged huh? No point in discussing what's already been discussed, but I'll just say that it's nice to get her side of the story. I still stand by my $.02 though.

Yes, you're going to get judged in life, disability or not, and I hope she realizes that she's not the only person on this planet who deals with this. Concerning awareness, I doubt anyone has enough time to pull aside every human on this planet and educate them on ASD. I can agree with her about fearing what's not understood...she hit the head on the nail there, everyone's guilty of this aren't they? Maybe she could invest some of that pent-up energy into educating others about the condition then? Dunno, anything but a repeat of what happened to land her in this mess again if she's interested in keeping her sanity.

At this point in time though, it's down to the individual with ASD (with a little help here and there) to learn how to manage their behavior in public and to effectively deal with all the social blahs that are so confusing and frustrating. That is something she's going to have to cope with head on sooner or later. Difficult? Certainly, but it's not impossible if one puts in the work and determination.
 
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