Give it up for the decent dudes. Yvonne Lin, an NYC-based product designer who is currently eight-months pregnant, created a unique trophy for the first man who gave up his seat for her on the subway — and her story has gone viral.
Lin, 38, who is in her second pregnancy, shared her story via Instagram on Tuesday, February 28, along with a photo of the bronze trophy and the hero of the hour.
“I’m about 8ish months preggers (again) and I look it,” the second-time mom-to-be captioned the split-screen shot. “I’ve been gradually coming to the conclusion that men suck. I didn’t get a single subway seat offered to me by a man throughout my first pregnancy. So for the second pregnancy, I had this made and I’ve been carrying it around everyday — till last Friday. This guy is the winner! #subway #nyc #pregnant #socialexperiment.”
The tiny statuette features a Hulk-looking man shredding his shirt and flexing his muscles atop a plaque that reads: “#1 DECENT DUDE. First Man to Offer Subway Seat to Pregnant Woman throughout Two Pregnancies.”
Lin explained to DNAinfo that she created the hilarious award after noticing that while plenty of women offered up their subway seats throughout her first pregnancy, no men ever did.
“I was getting no seats from men,” she told the site. “[So] if I finally get a seat from a guy then I have to celebrate this some way and make sure he knows he’s appreciated.” The designer carried around a “silly little card” in hopes of such a hero during the third trimester of her first pregnancy, but wanted to make something extra special for her second go-around.
“I thought, ‘You know what, it’s worth it to carry it,’” she said. (She also told The Huffington Post that she went for a 7-inch statue to make sure it was “big enough to make an impact, but small enough to fit in [her] work bag.”)
Then, on Friday, February 24, the trophy found a new home. According to Lin, she was taking the A train home that afternoon, standing in front of a seated man who was playing on his phone when he glanced up and immediately offered up his seat.
The man turned out to be 34-year-old Ricky Barksdale, an Army veteran and stuntman who chuckled when Lin pulled out the trophy to thank him. “She said, ‘Hold on a second. I have a gift for you,’” he told ABC News. “I thought it was going to be a business card.”
The father-of-two told ABC that what he learned from the experience is simple: “Pay it forward. Just do the right thing without expecting anything in return.”
