Please help me understand this!

J_Carioca

J_Carioca

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
I never once said it was a crime... but, there is such a thing as personal space even if it was a character. Would it lack common sense to say, walk up behind a blind person and touch his/her head with no warning? That is what this is about be it head, ears or any other body part. You seem to think that doing that is OK as long as it isn't the ears. I see no difference in the two because socially that is something that, yes, we should know is not what a thinking person would do.

Crime... don't be absurd, of course not. Massive social and physical error... you bet. If you were in a situation where you had no peripheral vision and were vulnerable to people that want to see what is under that foam head you would move quickly out of the way. There is no way to defend that action. It is OK to say that it was just a small lapse in judgement with no harm intended, that would be OK, but, that doesn't mean that the action was OK and the person asked if we could help them understand why Mickey had that reaction... that is why. They were wrong to do it and there is no justification for the action. There is an innocent excuse because there was no harm intended, but, it is something that just should not be done, ever. If they didn't know before.. now they do.23
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Yes, I can see why touching the characters' heads could be a problem. The point I was making is that the OP described something that was borne of good intentions (placing a guiding hand on the head) but you then said the OP had grabbed Mickey's ears (something that is clearly not done with good intentions) . "Grabbing" has negative connotations.
 
jloucks

jloucks

Well-Known Member
This is where fantasy and reality collide with a solid crunch.

Fantasy is these are WDW characters come to life with which we can interact as we would any real creature.

Reality is these are glorified furries with sweaty people inside, that, like anybody, don't necessarily like to be touched or goofed on (or aren't allowed to be). Add to that, wardrobe malfunctions are apparently a big deal, which just adds to the touch paranoia.

So, yea, people need to slide out from the fantasy when dealing with Disney furrries and remember that these are really just people in fur suits that like all people may not like being touched or may have rules regarding touching.

Therefore the common sense default behavior is no touching.
 
KBLovedDisney

KBLovedDisney

Well-Known Member
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T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
J_Carioca said:
He didn't grab his ears. He stated in his first post that he put his hands on Mickey's head, near his ears. That's not the same thing as "grabbing".

My question is - how would the cast member inside even feel this through a thick costume? I would be inclined to think that his departure had nothing to do with you.
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Actually I think it had everything to do with the person putting his hand on his head. First thing is we don't know how much a Mickey head weights or how well balanced it is or isn't. But having someone lay their hand and the weight of their arm on top of the head is going to likely cause problems.
 
larryz

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
J_Carioca said:
I've seen men wrap their arms around the waists of various princesses but no one seems to think that's a problem.
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That's 'cause the princesses' waists are not precariously balanced on their head and shoulders with straps and leverage and things.

And, as @dmw stated, the princesses are now proactively defusing those potential situations.
 
JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Where was the characters friend? Every time weve been to a character meal theres been a friend escorting the character around from table to table. When the OP went to place their hands on the character, there should have been some immediate intervention and comment from the friend immediately warning do not touch the character.
 
J_Carioca

J_Carioca

Well-Known Member
dmw said:
Is that recent? In our trip last month the princesses asked to take my arm (like walking someone down the aisle) as opposed to putting arms around each other, as they do for kids. As a father of two girls, I totally understand this. I recognized this after the second princess request and from that point forward I offered my arm for the pics.

So... why was I getting so many pics with princesses? I have a grown daughter who was on a mission to get as many autographs and pics as she could with all of the princesses. Wife and I joined for many of the pics, just for family memories.
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I can't recall if I saw this on my most recent trip; it was just a general observation.

And I'm not suggesting that if someone goes to put their arm around someone in a picture, that they're doing something bad. I'm just making the point that not everyone knows the particular etiquette of having photos taken with characters. And yes common sense says be careful where you touch people but common sense doesn't always prevail, especially when you've waited in line for said photo/have hyper kids to deal with/are exhausted, etc...

And...you don't need to explain why you're getting photos with princesses... it's a WDW board; we get it :)
 
Cmdr_Crimson

Cmdr_Crimson

Well-Known Member
J_Carioca said:
I've seen men wrap their arms around the waists of various princesses but no one seems to think that's a problem.
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The majority of times when I saw Princesses they would ask me kindly for my arm for said photo...Never had I heard them ever get an arm around them..CM's would tell them not to do this for safety reasons..
 
Riverbird

Riverbird

New Member
Original Poster
Goofyernmost said:
Why, of all the things that one could do, would you decide that grabbing his ears would be fine with anyone. It would never occur to me to touch anyone anywhere if I didn't know them personally. The simple alternative would have been to use your words and state that you are moving behind him.
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In my real life I would never hug anyone I didn't know...but Disney characters approach with open arms like you're a long lost friend. Some social norms don't quite apply in this situation. I don't think Mickey would respond well to, "Gosh I'd love to hug you but can we sit down and get to know each other for a bit first?"

Also, if I were posing for a picture with a group of total strangers, I would still put a gentle hand on a person's shoulder that I was moving behind, to make sure I wasn't accidentally trampling them while also looking at where I was walking. I really don't think there's anything wrong with this type of touch. I honestly don't know exactly why I touched his head instead of his shoulder...maybe because the head is so big it was just easier. I definitely didn't grab anything though!
 
Riverbird

Riverbird

New Member
Original Poster
J_Carioca said:
He didn't grab his ears. He stated in his first post that he put his hands on Mickey's head, near his ears. That's not the same thing as "grabbing".

My question is - how would the cast member inside even feel this through a thick costume? I would be inclined to think that his departure had nothing to do with you.
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The fact that he ran from our table (I was the first to greet him at our table) and went immediately to another table without talking to anyone else at our table makes me pretty much certain it was related to what I did. When I say he ran out of the room it was for a matter of seconds before he came back in. I guess he could've left for something else and accidentally forgot to return to our table. No way to know for sure. It does make sense to me that I scared him by touching his head while behind him.

And I'm a she, by the way. :)
 
Riverbird

Riverbird

New Member
Original Poster
JIMINYCR said:
Where was the characters friend? Every time weve been to a character meal theres been a friend escorting the character around from table to table. When the OP went to place their hands on the character, there should have been some immediate intervention and comment from the friend immediately warning do not touch the character.
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We were wondering this as well. Goofy was the main character for the breakfast and he had the professional photographer following him. Mickey and Minnie both appeared to be wandering around unassisted (though there were a lot of restaurant staff and such in the area). I think this is the part that bothers me more than anything else. It truly never occurred to me that I was doing anything wrong. Had someone just told me at some point not to touch the characters' heads I would've happily obliged and there wouldn't have been an issue. It was such a small thing in my mind, that had my friend not pointed it out I honestly would've had no idea what I did wrong. It would've saved so much issue to just have someone explain it in the moment. That's why I was also so surprised to see the woman getting kicked out of the Doug meet and greet. Judging by her expression she would've also happily changed her ways if she knew, but was instead just immediately asked to leave with no warning.
 

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