News Disney Characters Say Tourists Inappropriately Touched Them

[BromBones]

Now we have more characters (not face characters) coming forward and saying that tourists "inappropriately touched them".
One of them who played Mickey Mouse said they suffered "neck injuries" when an elderly grandmother patted Mickey Mouse on the head.

"The woman inside the Mickey Mouse costume went to the hospital with neck injuries caused by a grandmother patting the character’s head, while the employees wearing the Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck costumes were groped by tourists, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Office reports."

You now have to wonder how many of these complaints are valid and how many are CMs being oversensitive and/or looking for a payout from Disney?
Legit groping is a serious issue, but what constitutes "inappropriate touching"? And if this continues then how long will it be before characters stay behind barricades and Disney makes guests and children stand on the other side of the barricade to get pictures with the characters?

Disney characters say tourists inappropriately touched them

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney World employees who portray Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck each filed police reports this month claiming they were inappropriately touched by tourists.

apnews.com

 

[wm49rs]

Now we have more characters (not face characters) coming forward and saying that tourists "inappropriately touched them".
One of them who played Mickey Mouse said they suffered "neck injuries" when an elderly grandmother patted Mickey Mouse on the head.

"The woman inside the Mickey Mouse costume went to the hospital with neck injuries caused by a grandmother patting the character’s head, while the employees wearing the Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck costumes were groped by tourists, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Office reports."

You now have to wonder how many of these complaints are valid and how many are CMs being oversensitive and/or looking for a payout from Disney?
Legit groping is a serious issue, but what constitutes "inappropriate touching"? And if this continues then how long will it be before characters stay behind barricades and Disney makes guests and children stand on the other side of the barricade to get pictures with the characters?

Are these legit complaints or are these just Millennials being too oversensitive and looking for "micro-aggressions"?

Disney characters say tourists inappropriately touched them

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney World employees who portray Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck each filed police reports this month claiming they were inappropriately touched by tourists.

apnews.com

One of the CMs was 36 years-old. Fairly certain it's not a millennial being over sensitive....

 

[monothingie]

 

[Parker in NYC]

No, it's that this sort of behavior has happened since the year 1 and now there are consequences. And stop with the millennial thing, already. I mean... really.

 

[Princess Leia]

One of the CMs was 36 years-old. Fairly certain it's not a millennial being over sensitive....

Both cast members who portrayed Mickey & Minnie were 36. I'm just wondering how hard the woman was patting Mickey's head for the costume to slip and cause neck damage.

As for the teenager portraying Donald, that's a frightening situation. You're in full costume with limited sight when a guest gets incredibly handsy with you and puts her hands inside of your costume. I can understand why she didn't press charges (guest possibly had dementia), but the CM was young and probably concerned at the time it happened.

The DVC member who groped Minnie is weirdly not banned from Saratoga Springs. He's banned from the parks, but can still go to the resort?

 

[ABQ]

Do not each 9f the costumed characters have a handler CM nearby to assist when things go wrong? If that's not their reason for being there, what is the reason? Do they need bouncers?

 

[Obobru]

Lawyers will have characters in cages soon where you can only look at them, or maybe like SeaWorld and put them behind glass.

 

[Parker in NYC]

Lawyers will have characters in cages soon where you can only look at them, or maybe like SeaWorld and put them behind glass.

Or, if this sort of behavior is given attention, publicly shamed, and the guests rightfully punished, we won’t need to jump to ridiculous conclusions like this one.

 

[nicb88]

Both cast members who portrayed Mickey & Minnie were 36. I'm just wondering how hard the woman was patting Mickey's head for the costume to slip and cause neck damage.

As for the teenager portraying Donald, that's a frightening situation. You're in full costume with limited sight when a guest gets incredibly handsy with you and puts her hands inside of your costume. I can understand why she didn't press charges (guest possibly had dementia), but the CM was young and probably concerned at the time it happened.

The DVC member who groped Minnie is weirdly not banned from Saratoga Springs. He's banned from the parks, but can still go to the resort?

With regards to the DVC situation, I presume he must own at Saratoga and therefore cannot be ‘banned’ from real estate he owns? Perhaps there’s small print that could get Disney out of this situation but I’d assume they’d have played that card already if so.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The “pat on the head” sounds like it was exaggerated by Disney and really shouldn’t be included in the article.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

Not surprised, this is probably an hourly occurrence. I suspect kids are molested hourly as well. Places like WDW are magnets for ped- o - files and perverts, both workers and visitors... Never stayed on property in my life, but if I did I would never let my kids go to pool on their own. When I visited with my family, I never let my kids out of my sight.

 

[mm52200]

This kind of stuff happens all the time almost every day. Characters will even get punched in the face, picked up, all kinds of craziness.
It’s interesting to see these situations being reported and picked up on specifically. But also don’t please make this a millennial thing, you don’t know the kind of physical toll those costumes already take on cast members let alone what the guests add to it.

 

[Lilofan]

Lasseter was worse in his behaviour towards female cast members and got put on a 6 month paid sabbatical, then left with probably a nice golden parachute.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

Accountability my friends. The more of it, the better. People need to be more respectful.

 

[EagleScout610]

The “pat on the head” sounds like it was exaggerated by Disney and really shouldn’t be included in the article.

Well what one person (guest) interprets a 'pat on the head' could actually be them smacking Mickey in the head hard, causing the performer's head to whip uncomfortably.

 

[rickdrat]

I would think the female face characters would be getting far worse treatment than the costumed ones.

 

[Dutch Inn '76]

There are crazy people everywhere. Y'all know that, right?

 

[Minthorne]

Soon all photo shoots will be with animatronic characters.

interesting they couldn’t trespass the DVC member from SSR. Must be the only resort he owns at.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Is groping a fully costumed character now some kind of weird paraphelia? I'm too scared I might not be able to unsee the results if I tried a google search on the subject.

 

[mikeymouse]

How would you even know which gender was inside the masked character. Or maybe it doesn't matter to some?