Hamilton Woman Writes Viral Post to 'Beauty and the Beast' Moviegoers

“If you were there you likely heard a lot of random noises , lip smacking sounds ,raspberry sounds and or kissy sounds during the movie. You may have also heard a few people shushing the boy making the sounds assuming it was an unruly child acting up…”

Remember this quote, we’ll get back to this later.

Beauty and the Beast is the Disney classic that tells the story of a beastly prince who falls in love with a beautiful princess; it’s all about loving and accepting someone for who they are on the inside, rather than relying on outside appearances.

A woman named Sophie from Hamilton went and saw Emma Watson’s Beauty and the Beast this week with her 16 year old son Joshua in Stoney Creek; he wanted to watch it for his 16th birthday.

As Sophie wrote in this post on Kijiji.ca, “My son was born with Kabuki syndrome a rare genetic disorder that can cause multiple issues physically medically developmentally.”  

Now, go back to the original quote above; it is this disorder that caused Joshua to make those “random noises” during the movie and afterwards, Sophie had a message for moviegoers who stared in judgment at Joshua.

In the Kijiji ad she explains their trip to the movie theatre, “One of my son’s issues is Tourettes syndrome. His brain makes him say and do things he has absolutely no control over. What’s worse is that he can’t take the medications to treat it because they cause extremely severe side effects for him . Tourettes can come and go , wax and wane and for some people Tourettes can gradually disappear with puberty. We thought that was the case for our son as his tics had almost completely vanished.”

She continued, “His favourite thing in the whole world…one of the only things he enjoys is movies and movie theatres. Today he turned 16 ..a mile stone …and the only thing he wanted to do to celebrate was see Beauty and the Beast with his parents and sister. To our surprise Tourettes reared it’s head after being dormant for quite a while with a few small tics and people around us assumed it was behaviour and shushed him. I don’t blame them for that. How could they know right?”

Sophie added, “But if you were in that theatre and possibly even one of the people who shushed him…what you don’t know is that he hates the noises more than you do . He hates that he can’t control it. What you didn’t know is that he hadn’t ticked in a long time so he thought it was safe to go see a movie . What you didn’t know is that the best way to make a tourettes trigger go away is to ignore the tics but correcting a tic make the brain grab hold and make the sufferer tic even more. Telling someone with tourettes to stop a tic makes their tourettes mechanism in the brain go on fast forward repeat of that tic so it creates the opposite effect of what you are asking or telling them to do. THEY CAN’T HELP IT.”

As you can imagine, the stares and the looks took their toll on Joshua.

Sophie explained, “He heard your huffs and saw your stares . I don’t blame anyone in that theatre but I do hope to educate you so that the next time you hear random noises in a theatre or anywhere for that matter that you remember our story and you take a moment before staring or shushing and think that it could be worse. It could be YOU or YOUR Child who has no control of what their brain makes their body do. My son just wanted to see a movie on his 16th birthday. Over all he had had a good day but because of his struggle with tourettes tonight his last words before bed were ” I hate myself” so before you judge him or me or my family for sitting though all the movie with him making all those random noises… be thankful that your brain doesn’t do that to you.”

I e-mailed Sophie to ask her if I could share her story with you and she told me why it was important for her to write this message to her fellow moviegoers.

She said, “The point I would like made in my efforts to spread awareness is that people with disabilities shouldn’t be expected to live in the shadows because they make other uncomfortable . Expecting quiet at a kids movie isn’t a reasonable expectation any way and importantly that correcting a tourettes tics always makes that tic worse. You cannot discipline or parent a tic to go away. Ignoring it is the only option to avoid making the tourettes triggers worse. As uncomfortable as tourettes can be for those listening to the tics it is a 1000 times more uncomfortable and some times even painful for the person suffering with it.”

“As a whole my son doesn’t hate himself but when he has moments like the one at the theatre he struggles with his sense of self worth. We’ve taught him that he is beautifully and wonderfully made and a child of God.”

Her final message to people who read her post was a poignant one.. “Society needs to stop expecting people with disabilities to hide in the shadows because it makes them feel uncomfortable. My son did care that he was disrupting the movie. That’s the kind of heart he has and it’s my job to teach him never to be ashamed of his disability.”

Sophie’s post has had over 45,000 visits and she’s received an overwhelming output of support and kind messages. You can read Sophie’s full post on Kijiji HERE.

Also, to learn more about Kabuki Syndrome, click HERE.