Keep It Classy New York: Elderly Lady On NYC Subway Pleads With Car Full Of Men For A Seat, Even Offers Money, But Gets Ignored.
The latest viral outrage bait is this video of an elderly woman on public transit begging the men around her to give up their seats. Begging. She even offers them money. Yet nobody moves.
The camera pans over a wall of male knees and blank faces, like a casting call for “Background Guy #4.” The internet explodes and comment sections turn into the Geneva Convention.
What the hell did this lady expect?
You can't go the last century arguing to be treated the same as men and then act like this. Women have fought, clawed, marched, got arrested, lost jobs, and tanked reputations to be treated as equals. To vote, and work and to even be paid the same as a man for the same work. (The audacity, I know). To not need a husband to open a bank account or sign a lease. It has been one of the biggest civil shifts in human history.
So you can’t tell me that isn’t at least a little funny.
It’s the everyday version of “Have your cake and eat it too,” except in this example, the cake is a seat on the subway, and everyone’s big mad online.
Every man knows this, and more than likely abides by the double standard, just to stay sane and keep the peace.
I'm talking about the guy who gets barked at for holding the door (“I can open it myself, thanks”) on Monday and then roasted for not holding the door on Tuesday.
Or the guy with the wife or girlfriend who always insists, “I don’t need a man to do anything for me,” but then eyes him like he just committed a hate crime if he doesn’t offer to carry her 47-pound suitcase up the stairs.
Or the coworker who demands to be treated exactly like “one of the guys” until it’s time for the awkward task, late-night shift, or heavy lifting, and suddenly everybody's reminded, “Well, I am a woman.”
You can feel the entire culture presently living in this gray area.
As men, we constantly have no fucking idea which era we woke up in.
Is it 1952, where you stand up, tip your cap, and offer your seat, or 2025, where that’s patronizing and “I didn’t ask you to”?
On that train, those guys were basically paralyzed by 100 years of mixed messaging.
If one dude stands, is he a gentleman… or a dinosaur? If none stand, are they monsters… or just treating her “equally”?
And the internet, God bless it, will happily argue both sides at once.
Don't be upset with this poor lady though. She’s from a world with a very simple rulebook. In her era, men gave up seats, carried bags, and women didn’t have to Venmo them for the Uber. She’s not wrong to want kindness. She’s just playing a game that has had all the rules changed.
Real talk though- I have to point out that I was being sarcastic because God forbid somebody ever told my mom I wrote that she would beat my ass. I know the hardos will call me a loser for saying this but what on Earth is this nice old lady doing riding the Subway at night? I would rather hoof it like Donnie and Rone, the length of Manhattan, before you catch me on that piss and shit mobile. Ten times out of ten. Seven days a week. And twice on Sunday. I don't care if there's a blizzard outside. Call me snobby, a pussy, whatever. I almost got killed by a crazy person, minding my own business, once before. I'm not tempting fate again.
And anytime you take public transportation in a city that doesn't believe in crime and punishment, like New York, or Chicago, you are doing just that. Tempting fate. Ask this poor girl, who was minding her own business in Chicago this week, if you disagree with me.
If you are a man on public transit and a woman, especially an elderly woman, needs a seat, be a gentleman and show the world you were raised by good parents and stand up. Be a gentleman. You'll feel better about yourself and standing won't kill you.
Despite what the media and social media want us to believe, basic human decency still exists. Get up for old people, pregnant women, folks using canes, anyone who looks like standing is a competitive sport for them. That’s not gender politics, it's called “having a mother” and “not being a piece of shit.”
Kindness isn't the problem- entitlement is.