Sexism Role Reversal

 
           Above is a video of Leah Green going undercover in London to "reverse the role on  men". Most women feel that sexism is a normal  part of life and generally don't think too much into  it. Leah reverses the roles in reenacting real scenes  of sexism reported by women to see how men  react to her behavior and comments. Most men are  really surprised by her behavior, and some even  seem to think that she is mentally unwell because  her behavior is so unheard of. Leah is trying to  show how this behavior should not be more  acceptable for one gender over the other, and how  there is a clear double standard when it comes to    sexism. When men were approached by her, most seemed uncomfortable, but most were just confused by her comments. If women had been approached in the same way, it would have seemed normal and men would not have received the same weird looks. Her approach to this study was unique, because instead of attaching cameras to females to observe how they were affected by sexism, as we saw in an earlier study, she took matters into her own hands. Though this is an interesting, and arguably, productive approach, it is somewhat flawed.



A few of the of the commenters brings up the points that she is "making the assumption that every man is sexist" and "not all men are like this". I think that this is a valid point, and one that I saw frequently when scrolling through the comments. Though it can be perceived this way, I think that her direction was less toward men, and more towards sexism in general. It is important that she is trying to raise awareness by making this video, but it may have been productive for her to explain that she isn't making this video to target all men. It is important to remember that she is targeting sexism as a whole, which, according to her, men are generally the perpetrators.



I found some of the comments, such as the one on the left, to be very interesting. Quite a few of them brought up the point that to men "this is a laugh", suggesting that men are unaffected by her sexist, offensive behavior. This particular commenter even stated that "women are more vulnerable in these conditions". At first, I didn't think too much in to this comment, but once I started to think about it, I realized the fault, in my opinion, in what they were saying. Men can be branded as sluts just as easily as women can, and it isn't true that most men "would not have a problem with exposing themselves". This is suggesting that men are more sexual and wouldn't be as negatively affected by sexism as women. Though women seem to be targeted more than men, it is important to realize that men can be just as affected by this behavior.
               
           Overall, I found this video to be a really interesting way to look at sexism and how it is socially perceived. Though I do believe Leah Green could have looked at this with a more productive study, I think that the point of the video is to make a statement, which is exactly what she did. She created a lot of buzz and awareness around sexism, and made people take a second look at this aspect of society that we perceive as "normal".