Since its release on Tuesday, the YouTube video, “10 hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman has over 16,000,000 views. Joining with filmmaker Robert Bliss, Hollaback!, an organization that aims to end street harassment, created the video in an effort to bring attention to the street harassment many women experience every day.
“But what about men??” said the men who felt left out. Funny Or Die News decided to conduct an experiment to see what happens to a white man walking the streets of NYC. Watch the hilarious results below:
Through the use of creative and well-placed satire, the video both makes you laugh and simultaneously makes you think about the privilege (white) men have walking down the street. While understanding that the video is meant to be funny, it also draws attention to the fact that the hypothetical male equivalent of catcalling really isn’t equivalent at all. What do you say to a white, 30-something, clean-cut guy? Pick-up lines about networking, Harvard, and Starbucks gift cards are funny, but at the same time spot-on.
The video is a parody that ironically and pointedly bolsters the message of the original video: that we still live in a patriarchal society, and that because men don’t experience the every-day reality of catcalling/street harassment, they might struggle to understand what it really feels like.
Image via Funny or Die.
