Manspreading

"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.

[1][2] A public debate began when an anti-manspreading campaign started on the social media website Tumblr in 2013; the term appeared a year later.

[12][13] 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.

Author and fitness journalist Lou Schuler speculates that "manspreading" is natural due to men's inherent physical differences which make spreading knees the "least-stressed sitting position for men": Here's what happens when someone like me sits with my knees close together: The round ball at the top of the femur will pinch against the outside edge of the acetabulum (the hip socket), straining the labrum that lines the socket.

That automatically triggers resistance from the abductor muscles on my outer thighs, creating tension that can reach all the way up into the lower back.

The second I release the contraction, my thighs spring apart, leaving a gap of about 15 inches from the center of each kneecap, more than three-quarters of the distance to a proper manspread ... Women, on the other hand, have a wider pelvis and thighbones that more naturally angle in toward the body's midline, rather than away from it.

Men with long torsos also have a longer pendulum arm, which amplifies lateral forces due to motion of the vehicle.

[citation needed] Manspreading could also be due to the factors such as the overall width of the pelvis, which is relatively greater in females and the angle of the femoral neck, which is more acute.

Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk, a UC Berkeley post-doctorate researcher, recently published studies that found spreading out legs and arms is more sexually attractive when males do it.

The MTA campaign, which criticized many behaviors such as leaning on poles and applying make-up, used the slogan "Dude, stop the spread please!

[25][26] The controversy surrounding manspreading has been described by equity feminist writer Cathy Young as "pseudo feminism – preoccupied with male misbehavior, no matter how trivial.

'[2] According to UNSW professor and academic Emma Jane,[27] "A key component of activism in this domain has involved feminists taking candid photographs of male commuters engaged in manspreading and posting these images on social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.