YouTuber Joey Salads, known for his viral pranks, has this time taken upon himself to conduct a so-called ‘social experiment’ where he enters a public female bathroom claiming to be transgender.

Salads, whose YouTube channel has over a million followers, explains in the beginning of the video that he hopes to find out how women would react when they see a transgender woman using the same bathroom as them.

He then dresses up in a blonde wig and pink dress, allegedly with the help and approval of his transgender friend.

Now, let’s hold up for a second before we continue.

Firstly, why didn’t Salads get a real transgender woman to participate in this so-called experiment? Isn’t that the most obvious and logical way of doing things?

But he chose to do it himself, which begs one to wonder whether his aim is to elicit negative response from people, instead of honestly investigating what happens in reality.

Moreover, as a straight, white, heteronormative conforming male person, what he did is equivalent to blackface. It is in all ways a display of blatant ignorance and disrespect for a minority community.

And FYI, crossdressing and being transgender ain’t the same thing.

There are people who crossdress, and some do so to extravagant extents — see: drag queens — but they do not claim to be or identify as transgender. And then there are also transgender women who prefer to have short hair and a more butch style to their dressing.

Thus, what Salads did was, really, playing on the stereotypes that he has in his mind about trans women, which only reveals what he truly think of the transgender community as a whole.

What his actions are saying, is that the transgender identity is something someone can put on and take off anytime, which can’t be further from the truth.

It is clear that Salads had set himself and his experiment for failure right from the start, because his idea of what it means to be transgender, even after consulting his transgender friend as well as a doctor he claims to know a thing or two about gender and sexuality, is completely flawed.

Now, back to the video. Salads’ plan was to follow women into the bathroom, talk to them in his normal deep manly voice, and see their reaction.

One woman saw him coming in after her and screamed, ‘You can’t be in here! You can’t just say you’re a girl!’

Another woman said to him, ‘Get the f*ck out of here!’

It should be noted that Salads did not reveal to the women that it was all part of a ‘social experiment’ after he witnessed their response. He simply exited the bathroom with no explanation whatsoever.

However, out of all those who met Salads in the bathroom, there’s this teen girl who had a complete opposite reaction:

‘Are you transgender?’ she said. ‘Oh, good for you.’

Then the girl asked Salads how long he has been out as a woman, which he replied, ‘a couple of days.’ She then commented, ‘that’s a short amount of time,’ which then caused Salads to abruptly excuse himself from the bathroom.

Salads concludes at the end of the video that his experiment proves that ‘most women are not comfortable sharing a bathroom with a trans person.’

‘There has to be another solution for this debate because women are not comfortable sharing a bathroom,’ he remarked.

Of course, some conservatives jumped on the opportunity and let their bigoted minds feast on the outcome presented by the video.

‘If the majority of women aren’t comfortable with transgenders using their restrooms, why are their concerns being ignored for the sake of a very small minority?’ Michael Cantrell says on Young Conservatives. ‘Liberals claim to be about women’s rights, yet here they are, forcing ladies to do something against their will and stripping them of their right to privacy.’

Another blog writes: ‘The likelihood of serious problems arising, from perverted incidences of “voyeurism” to actual rape is increased by 1000%. It’s a no-brainer. If you are confused about what bathroom to use then unzip your pants and take a good look. If you’ve got one then you USE THE FRICKING MEN’S ROOM YOU FILTHY, DEMENTED FREAKS!’

Salads’ so-called social experiment is certainly extremely misleading, and only helps to perpetuate misconceptions and phobia of trans people.

And by the way, calling Salads’ actions out ain’t hating. Pointing out someone’s lack of knowledge, and the mistake they have made as a result of it, isn’t hating — it is education.

We hope that Salads would work with some transgender YouTubers in the future so that he can make things right.

The internet should strive to make people become more aware of the real issues that are faced on the ground — not some hypothetical situation based on fear-mongering and deception.

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