Manspreading
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"Manspreading" or "man-sitting" is a pejorative neologism referring to the practice of men sitting in public transport with legs wide apart, thereby covering more than one seat.
A public debate began when an anti-manspreading campaign started on the social media website Tumblr in 2013; the term appeared a year later. These campaigns have been heavily criticised as public shaming campaigns, as the subjects are often clearly identifiable, and the associated practice of taking non-consensual photos of men with emphasis on their crotch has been compared to creepshots or revenge porn.
The usage of the term has received substantial criticism from both feminists and antifeminists. Law enforcement regarding manspreading has unduly targeted Latino men, including a case where a Latino teenager was allegedly charged for having a backpack next to him on the train.
OxfordDictionaries.com added the word "manspreading" in August 2015. Lyndsay Kirkham, an English professor at Humber College, Toronto, said the practice was a metaphor for the permission men were given to take up a disproportionate share of space in society.
Manspreading is a term used by feminists and others to shame men. It is claimed that men take up a disproportionately large space when when seated, particularly on public transport. Anti-feminists have pointed out that women often use disproportionate amounts of space when sitting with a handbag and often other bags as well, a practice called shebagging.
The term may have originated on a blog called Men Take Up Too Much Space On The Train which went offline between 20 January 2015 & 27 September 2018.[1][2]
See Also
External Links
- Archive of the original manspreading page
- Know Your Meme
- War on men - first arrests for manspreading on New York subway
- The Huffington Post
- Manspreading Shebagging
- Oxford University Press