TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Why Mexico City authorities install 'penis seat' on metro
Change Size
The pictured fixture is part of a campaign by the United Nations and the Mexico City authorities to bring light to sexual harassment on public transportation. (YouTube/File)
W
hen commuters on the Mexico City Metro are on their way to work, they are faced with something strange: a seat molded to look like a male body, complete with genitalia and a sign on the window labeling the seat 'for men only'.
A sign on the floor in front of the seat explains: “it is annoying to travel this way, but not compared to the sexual violence women suffer in their daily commutes.”
The fixture is part of a campaign by the United Nations and the Mexico City authorities to bring light to sexual harassment on public transportation.
The seat was recently featured in an online video from the campaign, showing multiple passengers looking confused and attempting to sit down on the unusual seat. "Nine out of 10 women in Mexico City have been victims of some form of sexual violence in their daily transfers," the video concludes as reported by The Telegraph.
Read also: Garuda flight attendant suffers sexual harassment
The campaign has been praised for bringing issues to the forefront, but some have said that this still fails to address the root causes of harassment of women in Mexico.
When the campaign began earlier this month, Ana Güezmes of UN Women Mexico stated that “most men do not consider sexual harassment as violence. Saying things to a woman, whistling at them, are considered absolutely normal.”
"The campaign seeks to change (this view), to stop men from thinking that sexual harassment is normal,” she continued, before adding, "there are many men who do not harass women, and we want these men to be brave and go out and say that harassment is not normal." (sul/kes)
