Activism

Bet Shemesh Flashmob

There’s a ridiculously stupid ad on Hulu right now that’s supposed to look like a bunch of women doing a flash mob thing in a mall, and they’re all in pink and they’re dancing and I have no idea what the product is but I hate it and it makes me hate every ad targeted at women, and it makes me hate flash mobs so, so much. Like, hey everyone: please stop doing flash mobs. They are not cool or trendy. They make you look like a grandpa who is wearing his cap sideways to appeal to the kids nowadays.

Now that you know how much I hate flash mobs, you should have a good understanding of how much I must like this video when I say, “This flash mob is pretty great.”

250 Israeli women coordinated this amazing dance number set to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now as a way to make a statement against the exclusion of women from the public sphere. From the video description: “The women, residents of [Bet Shemesh] from all ages and sectors, religious, traditional and secular, gathered together in a flashmob dance, in the city square and started dancing towards a change.”

Even I can’t help but love an act of protest that brings so much obvious joy to the participants. That video is amazing.

You may recall that this is the same place where grown men threw rocks and feces at little girls going to school, and this is also where men have been telling women to move to the back of buses traveling to and from ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. On January 1, hundreds of men and women boarded buses to protest the segregation of public buses.

h/t to Luci Capeleanu for posting on my Facebook page!

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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17 Comments

  1. This actually brought happy tears to my eyes for those women of Bet Shemesh. There IS hope for their future. Loved that there was little girls in there too.

  2. It’s great. It’s even better if you know that not long ago, a bunch of religious women from Beit Shemesh organized a flashmob in the Jerusalem central bus station as part of a diabetes awareness day. I saw these women get criticized for dancing somewhere where men might go.

  3. “Like, hey everyone: please stop doing flash mobs.”

    Oh, no. Now a bunch of FMRA’s (Flash Mob Rights Activists) are going to descend from reddit to complain about horrible Rebecca telling them what to do.

    ;)

    Seriously, though, very cool video. Is that the same town where they dressed up a child like a holocaust victim to compare the existence of women to genocide?

    1. That was in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem. It was related to the same issue (the extremist haredim or “sikrikim” are in both Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem)

  4. Now I’ll always associate this song with women being strong…and zombies being smashed with pool cues.

    1. As will I. And somehow, somewhere, there’s likely another association waiting that will make it even more awesome…

  5. Great video. It’s time the people of Israel stand up against that small minority of load mouthed bigots that have held the country hostage for far too long now.

  6. Love this great video. I sometimes think that people in other countries don’t hear about the voices for peace and an end to discrimination in Israel and Palestine.
    They are a growing presence.

  7. Well, I love a good flash mob. And good on these women for rallying; it’s awesome to see so many women of different walks of life coming together on this!

  8. Now THAT is the Bet Shemesh I lived in!!! Yay! This made my day. I have been so sad to hear about the Haredi takeover there and I am so thrilled to see the other side!!!

  9. This made me cry for about nine different reasons. I was laughing, sobbing, and weeping at the same time.

    Thank you.

  10. hanks for what you wrote – and you are right, we had a great time doing this. My 14 year old daughter joined me, and she is at the age that she generally wouldn’t dream of doing something like this with her mother. We just keep watching the clip because it makes us smile each time. After the official dance, we spontaneously broke out in dance that went on for nearly an hour.

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