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Playboy, along with YouTuber Lauren Francesca, filmed a video at Comic-Con that is inspired by the “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” video that went viral last year, in which a young woman walks through the streets of New York and gets cat-called and harassed by men. The Playboy version has Francesca walking through Comic-Con San Diego dressed in her skintight “Space Girl” costume, while geeky men ask if they can take her picture.
A few things to point out: in the original video, the woman is simply walking down the street in black jeans and a tee shirt, while at Comic-Con, Francesca is cosplaying at a public event specifically designed for fans to take pictures of celebrities and people in costumes. Also, while the men in the New York video shout at the woman, make suggestive comments and even follow her, the men at Comic-Con are mostly polite and just ask for a photograph. All things considered, the Playboy video is pretty tame compared to the original.
There are two likely possibilities here: one, that Playboy is making fun of the original video and the woman who made it, as if the whole thing was an overreaction on her part; or two, that Playboy is trying to make a statement about women and geek culture and not really understanding why the original video made such an impact.
