When we found a YouTube channel making videos celebrating periods and mocking the hypocrisy around girls buying condoms, we thought we’d found another feminist platform that would continue making “funny & progressive content,” as their Facebook page suggests. But Girliyapa hasn’t just proved us wrong, they’ve also set the feminist movement back many decades by making a video that may have started out as a sarcastic take on rape culture, but only ends up reinforcing the sentiment that ‘sexism is a made-up concept used by unattractive women because they can’t get laid.’
So, here’s what happened. YouTube channel Girliyapa made a video about the creeps who stare at you in restaurants. So far so good.
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When the video was finally released, it was titled ‘Why Should Hot Girls Have All The Fun.’ Alarm bells started ringing in our head, but we ignored them.
The description says, “A hot girl notices that she’s being stared at and her friends lose their shit! Watch this hilarious video to know why.” Except, it was anything but hilarious. In a nutshell, the video is embarrassingly cringe-worthy and 50 shades of problematic.
Here’s everything that’s wrong with it.
It reinforces rape culture
People will be quick to tell you that rape culture means nothing. It’s imaginary. Rape jokes are funny and harmless. This video reaffirms that belief and puts the onus on women, making it seem like we’re, literally, asking for it.
Almost every girl’s struggle each morning begins with trying to figure out if an autowallah will take her to her destination or take her to a shady lane and try to rape her. The video mocks that, too.
It gives feminism a bad name
If Emma Watson can be told not to use the word ‘feminism’ in a speech about gender equality, what hope do we have? Millions of feminists fight this battle on a daily basis, and this video just made it more difficult. When the guy eventually flees the scene, the girls start bickering about why he wouldn’t stare at them, and this was one of the reasons.
It’s classist
All the hot girl shaming
One of the oldest stereotypes feminism has had to deal with is that we hate hot, skinny girls. Which also means that all feminists are inherently unattractive, shabbily-dressed and/or deprived of male attention. Newsflash: feminists hate no one – not men, not women, not anyone. Except for sexist bigots, maybe.
Among other things, it mocks the Nirbhaya protests
The video stars Mallika Dua, who’s been in the news for starring in some very funny videos in the past. This one is already getting likes, shares, and comments that have people ROFLing. It’s almost like giving a free pass to men to tell women – “Um, why are you getting upset with my unwanted, creepy attention on you when you and I both know that you secretly crave it?”
It’s obvious what the video wanted to do – mock the creeps who’ve made life very, very difficult for girls everywhere. What it ends up doing, however, is making it seem like girls don’t just not mind being catcalled, they actively seek that validation from men and get upset when their hotter friends get it and they don’t. Some things are too serious, too dangerous, too real to be joked about, and rape culture should be in the top 10 in that list. Besides, creeps don’t get sarcasm.
