This Searing Video Puts a Man Through the Everyday Sexism Wringer

The French have been killing it recently, not only when it comes to planting nuts gossip about a Beyoncé/President Obama affair, but also when it comes to portraying the everyday sexism that women face by putting men in our shoes for once.

In Majorité Oprimée (Oppressed Majority), a short film by Éléonore Pourriat, women treat a lone man in public with remarks that range from the condescending (“I should talk to your wife,” says a neighbor, implying that she would better understand her complaints about their apartment building’s upkeep) to the explicit (“Think I don’t see you, shaking your ass in my face” a street harasser says to the man as he waits on his bike at a red light). The kicker is when he stands up to a group of girls harassing him outside his office and they sexually assault him. He then has to tell his story at the police station to an unsympathetic female officer.

The video really commits to the role reversal, depicting female joggers who get to run around in public with their shirts off, as well as a tragicomic scene where the man tells his friend that he looks like a child after succumbing to pressure to shave his beard. All of it makes for a provocative video showing how we wouldn’t tolerate such systematic treatment of men in real life, so why do we tolerate it when it comes to women?