Manspreading

An example of "manspreading" on the Stockholm metro
An example of "manspreading" on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line

"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.[3] These campaigns have been heavily criticised as public shaming campaigns, as the subjects are often clearly identifiable,[4] and the associated practice of taking non-consensual photos of men with emphasis on their crotch has been compared to creepshots or revenge porn.[4][2][5][6]

The usage of the term has received substantial criticism from both feminists and antifeminists.[7] Law enforcement regarding manspreading has unduly targeted Latino men.[8][9][10][11]

OxfordDictionaries.com added the word "manspreading" in August 2015.[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.[6]

  1. ^ Fitzsimmons, Emma G. (20 December 2014). "A Scourge Is Spreading. M.T.A.'s Cure? Dude, Close Your Legs". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b Cathy Young, "'Manspreading'? But women hog subway space, too", Newsday, 5 January 2015.
  3. ^ Katherine Connor Martin (2015). "Manspreading: how New York City's MTA popularized a word without actually saying it". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
  4. ^ a b Jane, Emma A (September 2017). "'Dude … stop the spread': antagonism, agonism, and #manspreading on social media". International Journal of Cultural Studies. 20 (5): 459–475. doi:10.1177/1367877916637151. hdl:1959.4/unsworks_38898. ISSN 1367-8779. S2CID 147434257.
  5. ^ Young, Cathy. "Feminists treat men badly. It's bad for feminism". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference TorontoSun was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Young: 'Manspreading'? But women hog subway space, too". Newsday. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  8. ^ Mathias, Christopher (28 May 2015). "How Manspreading Arrests Highlight What's 'F**ked Up' About Broken Windows Policing". HuffPost. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  9. ^ Eifling, Sam. "The Internet Is Rightly Fuming at 'Manspreading' Arrests". Inverse. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  10. ^ "The first arrest has been made for manspreading". The Independent. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  11. ^ McLamb, Chase. "GUEST COLUMN: Politics bring out the worst in us". Technician. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  12. ^ "Manspreading, hangry, Grexit join Oxford online dictionary". Reuters. 27 August 2015.
  13. ^ "New words in oxforddictionaries". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 August 2015.