Seriously… what is wrong with people? A lot of hardcore Marvel fans had the opportunity to see Avengers: Endgame on opening weekend. Fans have been waiting to see this movie for years including 15-year old Emily Womack, who grew up with these films in her life!
Unfortunately, Emily didn’t get a chance to see the movie with everyone else. You see, Emily has Tourette Syndrome and before the movie even started audiences members started complaining and had the movie theater manager kick her and her mom and dad out of the screening.
This kind of stuff infuriates me! This is the moment that people should be able to shine and be their best selves! That’s the whole message behind these films! To inspire people to be better and be heroes! Instead of embracing this young fan with this handicap that she has to deal with every day of her life, audiences members complain and have her removed from the theater.
The thing is she can control it and she wouldn’t have made any sounds during the movie, but no one even gave her chance! In the video below she explains:
“Today I went to go see the movie premiere for Avengers: Endgame with my mom and my dad. They wanted to take me to it because they know I’ve wanted to see it since Infinity War, because once again I love Marvel, and also wanted to know what happened to Peter Parker because I love him.
“I have the ability to suppress my tics. I scream and I move around a lot and I twitch my eyes and things like that, but I do have the ability to hold it back when necessary but it hurts, especially over long periods of time so if I don’t have to I try not to. A movie like the Avengers is usually like 2 hours, 3 hours long and in order to watch the movie I was releasing my tics before the movie started during the previews so that during the movie I wouldn’t be ticing because I like to enjoy the movie too. I don’t want to scream. I understand that it would be hard to watch a movie like that.”
Let me point something out to you here. It hurts for her to hold her Tourette back. She would have to sit through the movie for three hours in pain so that the rest of the audience would have enjoyed the movie. She would have been in pain to ensure that the other audience members would have had an enjoyable experience. That’s the sign of a REAL hero right there.
They never gave her a chance to see the movie, though. They weren’t human enough to offer Emily any kind of courtesy. A bunch of asshats instead decided to ruin this young teen’s experience by preventing her from seeing the movie. Instead of stepping up to the plate and being decent human beings like she is, they have her kicked out. These people should be ashamed of themselves.
Emily went on to say:
“The theater, the manager of the theater came and they tapped my mom on the shoulder and they were like ‘hey, come talk to me’. They had told my parents that people were complaining about me. The movie hadn’t started. There were previews of like underwear and stuff like that. I guess they asked if we could leave and if we didn’t leave then anyone who complained they have to give the people in the theater free tickets if I didn’t leave.”
“I understand, I just, I understand that during a movie people don’t want to hear me tic like that, but I wish you would’ve given me a chance before coming and asking me to leave the theater automatically get more embarrassed and I feel so judged whenever people are like ‘okay, we want you gone.’ The movie hadn’t even started yet. They’re advertising underwear on the screen. It hurts, and so they want me gone, so okay, I don’t feel comfortable anymore being in a theater where everyone’s there like ‘why is she here, and my Tourettes automatically gets worse whenever it’s brought to my attention and whenever I’m in an uncomfortable situation, so I’d appreciate it if in the future somebody could talk to my parents or talk to me before going to a manager or if the manager could’ve waited until the movie had started. I wasn’t going to tic during the movie. I can suppress these things. I wasn’t even given the chance to watch a movie. I didn’t get one second in before they asked me to go, and I’ve been waiting for this movie.”
Emily is using this unfortunate incident to bring awareness to others who are struggling with Tourettes and how to treat people in general. Emily’s mom, Tina, said:
“Unfortunately, this incident wasn’t out of the ordinary for us. Normal, everyday things like shopping, eating out become tasks with potential frustrations like staring, giggling, and whispers. The most hurtful thing, for Emily, is when adults call her names. Some have gone as far as to suggest that there was a crow or some other loud squawking bird loose in the store. We hope that sharing Emily’s experience will open a dialogue about Tourette’s and bring some awareness for everyone who has been through similar experiences.”
What is wrong with people!? This is the kind of stuff that just makes my heart and soul hurt. Have these “so-called” fans learned nothing from these movies!? This is a shame, but Emily is showing that she is the bigger person in all of this and turning her awful experience into something positive.
You can learn more about Tourette Syndrome from the Tourette Association of America and you can also take the pledge to stop using Tourettes as a punchline and help make a change right here.