Manspreading

MTA poster

Manspreading, or man-sitting, is the practice of sitting in public transport with legs wide apart, thereby covering more than one seat.[1][2] Both this posture and usage of the term has caused some internet criticism, and debates in the USA, UK, Turkey and Canada.[3][4] The term first appeared in public debate when a feminist anti-manspreading campaign was started on the social media website Tumblr in 2013; the validity of the term has been questioned.[5][6]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in the New York metropolitan area and Sound Transit of Seattle have instituted poster campaigns encouraging respectful posture when other passengers have to stand due to crowding on buses and trains. Transport officials in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., however, have denied that it is a significant problem.[1][4] The MTA campaign will carry slogans like "Dude, stop the spread please!".[7] In some cases, people who find manspreading offensive have taken to photographing manspreading, and posting those images on the Internet.[1]

Controversy

While anti-manspreading campaigners have criticized the practice for being rude and inconsiderate to other passengers who have to stand, they have also been counter-criticized for focusing on men, and for ignoring women who also take up more than one seat.[2][8] The practise of posting pictures of "manspreaders" taken on subways, buses and other modes of transportation online has been criticized as public humiliation or shaming.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (20 December 2014). "A Scourge Is Spreading. M.T.A.’s Cure? Dude, Close Your Legs.". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cathy Young, "'Manspreading'? But women hog subway space, too", Newsday, January 5, 2015.
  3. ↑ Radhika Sanghani, "'Ban manspreading': Londoners want men to sit with their legs together on the Tube", The Telegraph, 23 Dec 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Johnson, Eric M. (16 January 2015). "One body, one seat: Seattle's campaign against the 'manspreading' scourge". Reuters.
  5. ↑ Willis, Amy (23 Dec 2014). "Those guilty of #manspreading on tube are fighting back against feminists". Metro.
  6. ↑ Matt Gurney, Jonathan Goldsbie (5 January 2015). "‘Manspreading’ and the Great TTC Gender Wars: A campaign too far, or silliness worth taking seriously?". National Post.
  7. ↑ Tahseen, Ismat (23 December 2014). "Mumbai’s got its own ‘man-spreaders’". The Times of India.
  8. ↑ Daniel Otis, "Man-spreading, a transit controversy with legs", thestar.com, Dec 28 2014.
  9. ↑ Devon, Natasha (16 January 2015). "The rise of stranger shaming: How humiliating others became acceptable". The Independent.

External links

Look up manspreading in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.