YouTube Asked to Yank YMCA Song â Culturally Insensitive to a Hard Hat
The Ontario Union of Construction Workers (OUCW) yesterday petitioned YouTube to remove the popular 70âs music video âItâs Fun To Stay At The YMCAâ performed by the Village People because of the disrespectful depiction of a hard hat. âI donât think the public is generally aware of the severe psychological damage that this video has done to our members over the years,â said union boss Joseph Chow. âUnlike the other hats in this video, the yellow hard hat is more than just decoration. It has great cultural significance, and our membership is sensitive to that. These performers [The Village People] do not treat this emblematic headgear with respect.â Asked to elaborate he continued, âAn apprentice is awarded his first â pale yellow â safety headwear when he can successfully knock a Tim Hortonâs cup off a sawhorse with a nail gun from fifty feet. Itâs a small cup â the one that used to be a medium a while back â and itâs not as easy as you might think.â âSimilar rites of passage occur throughout the workerâs career, until he eventually becomes chief of a work crew. This is the way of our people.â Wolf-whistling union members on a site on Bloor Street today seemed unaware of the firestorm of controversy ignited by their union. YouTube was unavailable for comment. The video in question has been viewed over 34 million times. This is apparently the first recorded official complaint. But probably not the last.