Country singer Jason Aldean found himself in quite a bit of trouble recently when a picture of him and his family at Disney World went viral. Nobody in the picture was wearing a mask or any sort of face-covering as per Disney World’s rules. This caused the singer to receive a great deal of criticism on social media. Some felt it was simply an exemption given to a celebrity and double standards while others thought it set a bad example anyhow to not be wearing a mask.
Eventually, Aldean removed the image from Twitter but he did respond to the negative views and criticism before that. He stated that everyone in his family was wearing masks as per rules and had only taken them off for a moment for the picture. His tone was pretty annoyed at all the negative attention.
He wrote, “Chill out lady. They are in our pocket. We took them off for 5 seconds to take the pic. Believe me, Disney didn’t give us a ‘free pass’ not to wear them. We had them on all day just like everybody else.”
It surely can’t be fun to take family photographs where everybody is wearing masks and Aldean’s family is far from the only ones to take off their masks to take a picture, Disney’s rules do not make any exceptions for photographs. The mask policy, as it stands now, only allows the wearer to take it off while eating or swimming and guests are expected to remain stationary in one place while eating.
A family in a stationary position taking a photograph for a few seconds can’t be too dangerous but Disney World most probably does not approve of such pictures. It sends out the wrong signal and encourages others to do the same. If everyone were doing it, it would become a hazard. Disney is even refusing to hand out the ride photos if someone is not wearing a mask.
Disney World is being extremely careful with their rules and they are being modified according to the situation. The rule about being stationary while eating was put in because officials saw people using food as an excuse to move around without masks. So far, there has been no indication that Disney World being open has helped spread the disease.
