Watch Queue Queue 
 
 Watch Queue Queue Remove all 
 
 Disconnect 

 Image copyright YouTube Image caption The so-called "penis seat" appeared in a viral video showing commuters on Mexico City's metro 
 
 When a new style of seat suddenly appeared on Mexico City's metro system, it was labelled as inappropriate, uncomfortable, humiliating and embarrassing. 
 
 It was supposed to be. 
 
 The seat, moulded to include a protruding penis and chest, was designed to highlight sexual harassment experienced by female passengers. 
 
 The explanation next to the men-only label read: "It is uncomfortable to sit here, but that is nothing compared to the sexual violence that women suffer on their daily journeys." 
 
 The seat is not a permanent fixture, but part of a campaign launched by UN Women and the Mexico City authorities called #NoEsDeHombres, which aimed to highlight sexual harassment on public transport. 
 
 But the response has been mixed. 
 
 Underneath a video of the stunt, which has been seen more than 700,000 times in the past 10 days, some viewers praised the idea, while others called it "sexist" and unfair to men. 
 
 Image copyright YouTube Image caption The video showed men sitting down on the seat and then jumping up again in shock 
 
 Gendes is a Mexican civil society organisation that focuses on working with men to promote equality and combat sexual harassment, which remains a major problem in the country. 
 
 Rene Lopez Perez, who heads their research programme, praised the campaign for taking an important issue and making it a talking point. But he also stressed the importance of not seeing all men as attackers. 
 
 "It's important not to stigmatise all men as violent and potential attackers of women," he said. 
 
 You might also like 
 
 Are these the world's toughest female soldiers? 
 
 Three words to set alarm bells off for every firm 
 
 What exactly does Ivanka do at the White House? 
 
 Holly Kearl, who founded the US-based website Stop Street Harassment, said there was something to be said for turning the focus away from women for once. 
 
 When she attended the UN Women Safe Cities Global Leaders' Forum in Mexico City last month, she noted the onus of change was often put on women. 
 
 "Too often initiatives around women's safety focus on what women should or should not do, so it is refreshing to see a creative campaign aimed at men," she said. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Mexico City's metro has women-only carriages 
 
 The Mexican capital's public transit system has long had a bad reputation for women's safety. 
 
 In 2014, UK polling company YouGov conducted a survey about harassment on public transportation worldwide. For verbal and physical harassment, Mexico City's metro was voted the worst. 
 
 Over the years, the city has tried various strategies to make women feel safer. 
 
 Trains have separate carriages for women. Women-only buses were also launched. An art collective, known as Las Hijas De Violencia (The Daughters of Violence), saw women responding to street harassment by blasting back at attackers with punk music and a confetti cannon. 
 
 Last year, the city's mayor caused controversy by announcing another new strategy: women were to be offered a small, city-branded whistle that they could toot when they felt threatened. 
 
 The plan was largely derided for not getting to the root of the problem. 
 
 "If screaming doesn't help, how will this?" wrote Mexico-based journalist Andrea Noel on Twitter. 
 
 Another Twitter user parodied the idea by suggesting the mayor's office also created a set of maracas to shake when you come across a case of corruption. 
 
 Ninde, who does not want to be known by her full name, says she has no trust in the female-only carriages after she was assaulted in one last year when a man ejaculated over her. 
 
 She tries not to use the metro now, and will only do so if accompanied. 
 
 She would like to see more done to improve the service for women, but she does not think the "penis seats" help. 
 
 "It seems to ridicule sexual harassment. A real sexual assault is nothing like this," she says. "I feel a little outraged that there are no real actions to eradicate the problem." 

 Rating is available when the video has been rented. 
 
 This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.
– Shaking heads. Disgusted looks. Giggles. These are all reactions you'll spot in a YouTube video documenting a Mexico City subway experiment that definitely caught commuters' attention. In what's described as an empathy-building campaign, the city's government teamed up with UN Women to create the #NoEsDeHombres campaign (per the New York Times, that translates to "this isn't manly"), created to show how women regularly deal with sexual harassment. In the "Experimento Asiento" ad by the J. Walter Thompson agency, the camera shows what happens when people riding the Mexico City subway spy a repurposed seat, with the top half designed to look like a male torso, the bottom half like a penis, right where someone would sit. A sign in front of the seat reads: "It is annoying to travel this way, but not compared to the sexual violence women suffer in their daily commutes." "We need to make clear that [harassment] is violent, not flattering," Ana Guemez, the director of the Mexican UN Women office, tells the Times, which notes the goal was to put the onus on men for this behavior, not on women. Various surveys show women in Mexico in general (and in Mexico City specifically) are prone to feeling unsafe or reporting they were groped or harassed while on public transportation. The BBC notes the video, which has so far been viewed more than 1.7 million times, is receiving mixed reaction, with some hailing it and others calling it sexist. "It's important not to stigmatize all men as violent and potential attackers of women," says the chief of a Mexican group working to educate men on sexual harassment. J. Walter Thompson also created a second ad showing men's butts. (A Mexican man was acquitted of sexual assault because a judge found no proof of "desire.")