Thin privilege is not having your body type used as the butt of a joke in a children’s show at a dinosaur park.

I went with my sister and her husband (both average size) to Field Station: Dinosaurs in Secaucus, NJ because we had coupons and giant animatronic dinos are awesome no matter your age. We were passing by their “amphitheater” as a show was starting, so we sat down to watch.

The conventionally attractive, probably early twenties, and quite thin man leading the show started with a game where kids in the audience guessed whether a picture was a paleontologist or a governor of NJ. It was cute, and funny, but when the picture of Chris Christie came out I got a sinking feeling, which proved to be well deserved.

Despite the little girl saying “that’s a governor! That’s my Mom’s favorite!” the presenter plowed ahead with his “joke” saying “This isn’t a paleontologist or a governor! This is a brontosaurus!” and I’m pretty sure he said brontosaurus, which isn’t even the proper name for that Dino anymore. Then he laughed and said “No, no, this is a governor.” but I looked at all those little kids, laughing because their parents were laughing, and I just wanted to cry. Here’s a girl who clearly has a lot of respect for Christie, since her Mom likes him, and she’s being told to make fun of him because he is fat.

And the worst part? My brother in law made a joke about how Christie is one of the dinosaurs under his breath before the presenter did. Awesome. Do you think your sister in law is a dinosaur as well? How nice. How bigoted. Fuck off.

So anyway, I didn’t have the presence of mind to go over and call the presenter out on his awful, fat phobic joke in the moment, but if anyone else goes to this place, maybe you could.