You'd like to think that most people know that catcalling is wrong. And yet, there are still those individuals out there who insist on participating in this form of street harassment, making millions of women feel uncomfortable when they just want to get to work or go home.
Someone should really teach them a lesson. Who better than their own mothers to do so?
The things catcallers say are typically NSFW, so their mothers are probably the last people on Earth they would want to see them engaged in this activity. A new ad shows just that but in an even more cringeworthy way.
The athletic wear company Everlast recently teamed up with the activist group Paremos el Acoso Callejero, which means "Stop Street Harassment" in Spanish, to create a three-minute spot that draws attention to the issue of catcalling in a way that we haven't seen done before. Instead of using a hidden camera to show anonymous men shout vulgarities at women on the streets of major cities as catcalling videos have shown in the past, this video shows mothers reacting to their sons doing the catcalling... at them.
You read that right. In a video that would probably make Freud squeal if he were still alive today, mothers go undercover wearing wigs, glasses and heavy makeup as they pass by their sons on the streets of Lima, Peru. The sons don't recognize their moms, of course, as they say things like "Tasty panties!" and "Hello, piggy" as their undercover mothers pass them on the street.
When their mothers take off their disguises, the sons promptly freak out. What's more interesting, however, is that they then recite excuses we hear time and time again to defend catcalling, saying it's a joke or it's just how people their age talk or it's because of the way she was dressed that encouraged them to say those things.
Of course, since this video seems staged, it isn't quite as powerful as some of those aformentioned videos that capture street harassment as it happens in real life. The woman in the van that wants to destroy the catcallers also only helps to perpetuate the stereotype that all feminists are misandrists, too.
Still, with seven out of 10 women experiencing street harassment in Lima every year, according to the video, anything that draws attention to this problem helps. One can only hope that the fear of accidentally calling your mom "hot" or saying something sexual to her on the street is enough to end catcalling, or at least deter some people from continuing to do it.
Watch the full video below, and try your best to not feel uncomfortable.
[H/T Co.CREATE]
