Poll: Do You Manspread

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I generally cross my legs or sit indian style (both legs crossed) if the seating allows for it, everywhere. That's most comfortable.


What I don't understand is how spreading your legs such that you do not crush your flesh is a "thing" and how it is decided whether the leeway one gives himself is beyond what is necessary without being aware of his testicular fortitude. We don't have fatspreading (fat people sitting in a way that doesn't crush their massive thighs, taking too much space up from thin people) so should we not do so in this case. Anyone who doesn't get this needs to try sitting while placing her fist in their pants in the center of her thighs and try to find a way that allows her fist to not feel smashed between her legs without alloting enough space for it somehow.

 

[Something Amyss]

Jeezy Chreezy. I'd be concerned for a guy who can't close his legs without pain, that doesn't sound right to me.

Yeeeeeah, I've actually been kind of torn as to whether or not to talk about this. Partially because I'm not really fond of talking about my nether regions.

But, I mean, I guess here's the short version. Not only was I cursed with male genitals, but seemingly especially sensitive ones to the point I've been medically checked out to rule out any potentially harmful issues (cancer's the one I remember, because I've been screened for almost every cancer on the planet). I'm sensitive enough I have issues properly "tucking."

And I still don't have a problem either crossing my legs or simply sitting with my knees narrower than my shoulders. It's not even like your knees need to be locked together, either, just close enough that you're not adding to space consumption.

1/5 of the poll right now says they're men and manspreading is necesssary (21.7% say "yes I have to) and I'm just thinking "are you serious?" and maybe if they are serious, it's something that should be checked out because that honestly doesn't sound healthy.

And why do weird guys always have to bring up breastfeeding. Uuuugh.

I'm more concerned with the context. What are you doing with your genitals that equates to feeding another human being? Remember, this is a biological necessity

Good to see that they're typically sexist and reserve stroller complaints for women. As if only a woman could ever do that or as if it's something inherently female.

Worse, since CAFE claims to be concerned with paternal parental rights.

...god, try writing "paternal parental" when you're dyslexic. I'm glad I didn't have to include "prenatal" there.

Hell, even the breastfeeding argument comes off as pretty hollow coming from a group that claims to care about families. Seems like a "family" group wouldn't want to stop breastfeeding. Also, I'm not really sure how it's "equality" that dudes can walk around with their shirts off but the only time it's even questionable acceptable for a woman to expose herself is because she's feeding a human being.

It's kind of getting off the topic of the biological necessity to "manspread," but hey.

 

[Kameburger]

Sooooo, I have recently seen a rise in discussion (internet cesspooling and maybe one news story) about the supposed problem of manspreading creating a crisis (hyperbole) of seating availability on public transports. Whenever this topic is brought up I constantly see people claiming that it is physiologically impossible for a man to not spread his legs lest he either crush his junk or ride them up his thighs, causing them to create a bulge in his pants. Leaving him open to sexual harassment. I have seen this argument raised time and time again with almost no alteration. This makes me believe that it is a snowclone argument, possibly a quote from a popular blogger/podcaster.

Furthermore, I have heard that the term is sexist as it excludes female spreaders from the argument but, from my personal observations, the most vocal pro manspreaders base almost all of their arguments upon the male physiology necessitating it. Soooo, does that make it a sexist term, I do not know.

I am asking because there does not seem to actually be any decent studies upon this phenomenon (that I can find) and it all appears to be hearsay at this point. Is it even a problem at all? I know personally that if I wanted a seat on a full bus and someone was consuming more than one without any evident need, I would be very hesitant to bother them. As a man with, ahem, normal assets I was not able to cause myself any discomfort by closing my legs together. Nor was I able to create any noticeable differences in the crotch of my pants while wearing jeans.

At the same time I have freaking enormous thighs as a powerlifter so I do not how that factors in, if at all.

So let me know what you think, share any studies (if there are even any), and let me know of your own experiences. I have tried my best to be as neutral as possible but I just know that this is going to get ugly fast but my acknowledging it is not an invitation for such, far from it. For the love of God, at least try to be decent.

P.S. If popular consensus reads that the term is sexist, what term would you use instead of manspread? Would it be more prudent to simply use different terms for men and women?

I don't really understand the term as anything but a gendered term to express irritation. For example, explaining becomes "mansplaining" when a man does it to a woman in a certain way. Sitting becomes "manspreading" when you are perceived to take up someone else's space as a result of spreading your legs to an undefined degree. So I guess my interpretation of the word doesn't match your question exactly, if that makes sense.

Is the term sexist? I donno can we please just stop this? I don't want to dissect every breath as some sort of problematic societal hurdle. There are conversations in the field of social justice that have direct implications for the quality of life of the people involved. This is not one of them in my honest opinion...

 

[Elfgore]

All the time, I'm doing it right now. Then again, the only place I can do it is at work and home. I have my own cube so no issue with room there. It is just very comfortable.

Now, back when I rode the bus to school and I had to share a seat. I would reel it in. I would do the same if needed on a public bus/train.

 

[Something Amyss]

I refuse to believe it is preferrable to anyone to sit with their knees pressed together, if they have testicles or any kind of thighs. There is no way that can be preferrable. No way.

Admittedly, I've not read every post in the thread. Is anyone saying that you have to press your knees together to not take up extra space? All you really need to do is sit with your knees not further apart than your shoulders. There. You're no longer taking up extra space. And there's no need to press your knees together.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I refuse to believe it is preferrable to anyone to sit with their knees pressed together, if they have testicles or any kind of thighs. There is no way that can be preferrable. No way.

Admittedly, I've not read every post in the thread. Is anyone saying that you have to press your knees together to not take up extra space? All you really need to do is sit with your knees not further apart than your shoulders. There. You're no longer taking up extra space. And there's no need to press your knees together.

The problem is that there is no standard. What you describe is reasonable but a lot of people don't specify this and use an "I know it when I see it" approach to condemning people. It's purely subjective and nonsense. You can both spread your legs enough to not crush your balls and not take up space outside your seat and that is also a literal application of the term manspreading. Also, women are able to sit in ways that take up more than one seat, too! If you wanna talk about public transportation etiquette you need not gender it or overly focus on this one example of bad manners.

 

[Wolf Hagen]

I am already such a fat bastard, that I make up for 1,5 Persons, so got no need to "spread out".

Neither probably if I'd be a skinny dude type though. It's rude behaviour.

 

[Recusant]

I'm surprised that I, someone who had no idea what this thing was before I clicked on the thread, have to explain it, but such is the world that we live in. Now, anyone referring to a specific type- not a specific set, mind, but a type of genitals as "junk" is either making a bad joke or pushing a toxic ideology. Since this is being referred to as "manspreading" it's pretty obvious which is the case here, but this behavior does exist (though more commonly on trains), it is mostly men doing it, and it is for anatomical reasons- just ones further north than people seem to think.

I am a very large man- I am tall, I am broad, and I am fat. As happens when you are large in all three dimensions and live on a ludicrously iron-rich planet, I am also very heavy. I am not, however, so large that I get to ignore inertia. If you're the poor fool sitting in front of me when the train we're on decelerates quickly from a speed far faster than I ever evolved to move, my high center of gravity is going to cause me to slam into you, with results that are painful at best. The risk can be greatly ameliorated if I'm able to prop my legs out as stabilizers to triple my available balance points- but if, as is usually the case on US public transit trains, we're both sitting sideways relative to the direction of travel, I need to spread them out further. This is the root of most of what you're going to see. Yes, there are people who will simply sprawl to fill all available space; I'm not disputing that some people have no consideration for others. But it's a lot less rude to risk exposing someone to momentary discomfort than risk crippling them by slamming the weight of a gorilla into a body that's tensing to avoid slipping itself.

 

[Kirke]

I do, though not as much when using public transportation. But not because the crown jewels get uncomfortable, but because I have big thighs. I have to strain in order to keep my knees within shoulder width. Fortunately for everyone involved, I mostly use a bicycle.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Sounds like a bit of a stupid term to excuse being an asshole

Feminists who insist that all men must cross their legs and make themselves invisible think so yes.

All normal people by contrast realise that this is not obligatory and people can sit on their seat as they like, without being blamed for existing.

Did I say "all men must cross their legs and make themselves invisible"?
No, I did not. Nor did I ever say I am a feminist.
So, feel free to take your sort of posting to R&P or GID, where it belongs.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Did I say "all men must cross their legs and make themselves invisible"?

You said manspreading equals being an arsehole.
Manspreading is a feminist term for the offense of sitting normally.

Try reading my original post rather than just quoting a small part of it. I gave some very specific examples.
I know it may be the norm to use small parts of a post to try to twist what people say in R&P, but not here. No need to poison the rest of the forums with such practices.

 

[Bat Vader]

People should sit how and where they want. If others find it rude or offensive they can fuck right off. I sit how and where and I want and I couldn't care any less what others think.

 

[Pseudonym]

As a man with, ahem, normal assets I was not able to cause myself any discomfort by closing my legs together. Nor was I able to create any noticeable differences in the crotch of my pants while wearing jeans.

Same thing here. I'm sitting with my legs crossed right now and am experiencing no issues whatsoever.

On the other hand, I see people take up unneccesary space in public transport all the time in many other ways. Using the second seat for their bags and using the aisle seat when the window seat is free are the two I see the most. And even those things, that annoy me a lot more than people spreading their legs a little are already minor nuisances that can be circumvented by asking for space.

This whole thing seems like a non issue blown out of proportion by people who want to score points in the current gender wars. The whole thing doesn't greatly matter one way or the other.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Most men and women like to spread out a little if there is room. The rude ones do so even if there is not, but I have found that to be very rare indeed.

This is one of those pretend things the internet likes to complain about because it is the internet. Like mansplaining and everything on tumblr.

 

[s0denone]

...What if you're big, fat, have a generous helping of testicles and can still sit comfortably in a chair without flopping your legs out?

Just sayin', anecdotes are all well and good until we try to make arguments from 'em. Because then some fat, large-balled fuck (i.e. me) will come butting in going 'Your argument doesn't fit my personal experience!' and ruin everything with his ability to not knee other passengers and try to pass it off as 'I need the space for comfort'.

I don't believe you or we have very different standards of what "manspreading" is.

I refuse to believe it is preferrable to anyone to sit with their knees pressed together, if they have testicles or any kind of thighs. There is no way that can be preferrable. No way.

Admittedly, I've not read every post in the thread. Is anyone saying that you have to press your knees together to not take up extra space? All you really need to do is sit with your knees not further apart than your shoulders. There. You're no longer taking up extra space. And there's no need to press your knees together.

That is fair enough. I haven't a fucking clue how I need to sit to qualify.
So is sitting like this:

as was linked on the bottom of page 2, manspreading?

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

I'll spread myself out across a couple of seats on a fairly empty bus or train (although it's more sitting diagonally than spreading my legs), but other than that I keep my knees at most shoulder width apart or only within the width of the seat. Any wider than that is dick move when you have someone sitting next to you.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

Forget legs. If i sit on a bus with my left shoulder against the window, my right shoulder is encroaching on the next seat's territory. What's a man to do?

 

[sageoftruth]

I sit with my legs apart and my hands lazily resting in my lap, when not sitting beside anyone, because it's more relaxing. On public transport, my legs are usually too long to point forward. If nobody else needs a seat, I'll also put my bag beside me so I don't have to carry it in my arms or put it on the sometimes filthy floor. I usually find it considerably more annoying when teenagers sit down a few seats away with their sh**ty tunes blasting through tinny Beats headphones.

I know of no reliable studies or peer-reviewed pieces on this particular hysteria. I avoid.

That's a good point. I forgot to consider seats that have a seat right in front of them. The train I usually take has side-facing seats, or seats so far apart that it's not a problem, but I have long legs too, and if I'm on one of those cheap buses with a seat right in front of me, then I cannot help but manspread. Either that or rest my feet up on the seat in front of me, which it probably worse.

 

[sageoftruth]

Usually sit with my legs crossed. Never had any issue whatsoever closing my legs.

If anyone does have issues they should probably have that checked out by a doctor, if your balls are that bloated you've probably got an STD of some kind...

I'd probably take up even more space if I sat that way. I have long legs and I'm about as flexible as a plank of wood. With that said, I can handle sitting knees together for the 20 minutes it takes me to get to work. I don't know what everyone else is complaining about. I'm pretty massive, so I doubt it has much to do with body type.

 

[Barbas]

That's a good point. I forgot to consider seats that have a seat right in front of them. The train I usually take has side-facing seats, or seats so far apart that it's not a problem, but I have long legs too, and if I'm on one of those cheap buses with a seat right in front of me, then I cannot help but manspread. Either that or rest my feet up on the seat in front of me, which it probably worse.

Well in those cases, I think you have to balance both the neighbour spaces and the tripping hazard to aisle pilgrims.