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  • 2018-05-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Did a Woman Say a Theme Park 'Fat-Shamed' Her Because She Couldn't Fit on a Ride? (en)
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  • On 9 May 2018, the right-leaning blog DailyWire.com reported that a woman claimed she was fat shamed by a theme park ride in California: The story is based on a 9 May 2018 opinion piece written by Schmiedling about her experience while visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Hollywood, a movie-themed amusement park in Los Angeles. She recounts getting kicked off the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride due to her size after making it as far as sitting down and lowering the shoulder harness: Despite clickbait headlines reporting otherwise, nowhere in her piece did Schmiedling accuse the ride (an inanimate object) of fat-shaming her. Schmiedling was simply recounting her experience with a known issue at amusement parks, in which plus-sized guests will sometimes wait in line and finally get their chance to board a ride, only to be told by park employees that they do not meet size restrictions. The predicament is usually compounded by the mortification resulting from having it happen in full view of other park guests. Schmiedling argues that the experience is emblematic of the ways in which some are bullied or excluded because they don't conform to socially-dictated weight norms and that theme parks, places where people spend a great deal of money to escape their day-to-day struggles and conflicts, should build attractions that accommodate guests of all sizes and body types — a seemingly innocuous, if not benevolent, suggestion. She writes: However the piece was, perhaps predictably, picked up by right-leaning blogs throwing red meat to fans hungry for manufactured outrage about outspoken women or overly-sensitive social justice warriors. Aside from DailyWire.com, the article was aggregated by DailyCaller.com, Breitbart.com and the conspiratorial site WND.com, which published headlines like, Woman Says Harry Potter Ride 'Fat Shamed' Her. As is often the case when the Internet outrage machine churns into motion, Schmiedling said she is getting aggressively harassed in response to her piece, telling us: Schmiedling's experience with that particular attraction isn't unique — there have been multiple reports that the Forbidden Journey ride has more restrictive limitations on the size of guests than others. As the theme park-oriented Attractions Magazine reported, it may be in part because, unlike roller coasters, the ride doesn't go fast enough for the force of motion to help secure people in seats: Nevertheless, Schmiedling, a comedian who hosts a podcast called Woman of Size, wrote that were it not for a warning from a friend about the ride's weight restrictiveness and the fact she spends a lot of time discussing societally-prescribed weight norms and their effect on people who don't conform to them, the experience may have been far more painful: In 2010, Universal Studios Hollywood's sister park in Orlando, Florida modified the ride so that plus-sized guests could ride. We reached out to Universal Studios Hollywood for comment, but received no response. (en)
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