inspiring

Pregnant Woman Bestows Trophy Upon First Man to Offer Her His Subway Seat

Throughout Yvonne Lin’s entire first pregnancy in New York City, no men offered her their seats on the subway. So when the 38-year-old designer got pregnant a second time, she decided that if any man was actually courteous enough to give her his seat, she’d reward him with a 7-inch “#1 DECENT DUDE” trophy. And at eight months pregnant, she finally got to hand over the bronze statuette on the A train, DNA Info reports.

Lin came up with the idea during her first pregnancy, when she noticed that the only people offering her their seats on the subway were mostly black and Latina women. “I was getting no seats from men,” she told DNA Info, “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.” So she purchased a “silly little card” to give to any man who offered her his seat during her third trimester, but no man earned the reward.

That’s why, the second time around, she decided to up the stakes. In her backpack she carried around a bronze statue featuring a Hulk-like man ripping off his shirt, and a plaque that reads: “#1 DECENT DUDE. First man to offer subway seat to pregnant woman throughout Two Pregnancies.”

Eight months into her pregnancy, on February 24, while standing on the A train in front of a seated man, the unexpected happened: The man actually glanced up from his smartphone and noticed the “obviously pregnant” woman in front of him. “He looked up at me and looked super startled and embarrassed, and he immediately stood up and said, ‘Please take this seat, I just noticed,’” Lin told DNA Info.

The pair chatted briefly, and the man explained that he was a father of two. Although Lin never got his name, she presented him with his award, and snapped a picture of the beaming recipient. She hopes that her experiment reminds New Yorkers of the importance of being decent to one another. “If men just gave up their seats the same amount of time or similar [as women], then it would be no problem,” she said.

New York Man Awarded for Giving Train Seat to Pregnant Woman