Thin is in especially when it comes to the Fat Controller in the Thomas the Tank Engine Stories. A ride in England based on the beloved books by Rev. W. Awdry which have been read by millions of children around the world has been banned from advertising for a fat person to fill the role of the Fat Controller on the basis it may discriminate against thin people.
It’s not that the ride operators hate thin people but that the books illustrations show the controller Sir Topham Hatt as a very rotund or roly-poly character and they want to stay true to the books by having a large person fill the role.
Maybe this is a tempest in a teapot as the operators could probably find an average weight person and put him in a costume stuffed like Santa Claus, but that isn’t really the point. The point in my opinion is that the insidious menace of political correctness has taken over virtually every aspect of our lives. We think it’s bad here in the U.S., but it is far worse in other parts of the world like the U.K. and New Zealand where groups that specifically oppose political correctness have sprung up and are gaining steam.
The ride will probably survive with or without its Fat Controller, but will the U.K. and others survive the p.c. onslaught?
Don Irvine is the chairman of Accuracy in Media
