It is the bane of many female subway riders. It is a scourge tracked on blogs and on Twitter.

And it has a name almost as distasteful as the practice itself.

It is manspreading, the lay-it-all-out sitting style that more than a few men see as their inalienable underground right.

Now passengers who consider such inelegant male posture as infringing on their sensibilities — not to mention their share of subway space — have a new ally: the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Taking on manspreading for the first time, the authority is set to unveil public service ads that encourage men to share a little less of themselves in the city’s ever-crowded subways cars.

The targets of the campaign, those men who spread their legs wide, into a sort of V-shaped slouch, effectively occupying two, sometimes even three, seats are not hard to find. Whether they will heed the new ads is another question.

Riding the F train from Brooklyn to Manhattan on a recent afternoon, Fabio Panceiro, 20, was unapologetic about sitting with his legs spread apart.

“I’m not going to cross my legs like ladies do,” he said. “I’m going to sit how I want to sit.”

And what if Mr. Panceiro, an administrative assistant from Los Angeles, saw posters on the train asking him to close his legs? “I’d just laugh at the ad and hope that someone graffitis over it,” he said.

For Kelley Rae O’Donnell, an actress who confronts manspreaders and tweets photos of them, her solitary shaming campaign now has the high-powered help of the transportation authority, whose ads will be plastered inside subway cars.

“It drives me crazy,” she said of men who spread their legs. “I find myself glaring at them because it just seems so inconsiderate in this really crowded city.”

When Ms. O’Donnell, who lives in Brooklyn and is in her 30s, asks men to move, she said, they rarely seem chastened: “I usually get grumbling or a complete refusal.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/nyregi...bways.html

Who knew there were so many patriarchal, white-loving, privileged shitlords on the subway.

It's more a matter of selfishly trying to take up multiple seats. Not sure what's with the title of it though.

I'd be willing to close my legs on the trains if women would never walk next to each other in airports or other crowded spaces. I don't know how many times Ive had to spend a few minutes figuring out how to pass two women wearing high heeled shoes (so they walk especially slow) completely oblivious to the fact that there are 5-10 people trying to pass them as the jabber on while walking slower than continental drift as they block the entire pathway.

“I’m not going to cross my legs like ladies do,” he said. “I’m going to sit how I want to sit.”

Misogynistic, privileged, patriarchal, oppressive, offensive scumbag. ROT.

(05-08-2015 09:21 AM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  I'd be willing to close my legs on the trains if women would never walk next to each other in airports or other crowded spaces. I don't know how many times Ive had to spend a few minutes figuring out how to pass two women wearing high heeled shoes (so they walk especially slow) completely oblivious to the fact that there are 5-10 people trying to pass them as the jabber on while walking slower than continental drift as they block the entire pathway.

Shifty, it's about taking up more than your own seat ya big goof.

As I said in another thread:

Quote:This person is who you have aligned yourself with and who your politicians pander to. Until you drop them from your party, you are guilty by association.

So there may be those liberals like UCF that disagree with this ridiculousness, but the alliance has now turned this ridiculousness into public policy in NYC in this instance. It is time to for all men to ally and defeat the feminazis and SJWs. This thread is a microcosm of the future of the democrat party.

(05-08-2015 09:23 AM)UCF08 Wrote:  Shifty, it's about taking up more than your own seat ya big goof.

No, it is about testosterone suppression.

Those boobs can take up a seat themselves.

(05-08-2015 09:23 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  As I said in another thread:

Quote:This person is who you have aligned yourself with and who your politicians pander to. Until you drop them from your party, you are guilty by association.

So there may be those liberals like UCF that disagree with this ridiculousness, but the alliance has now turned this ridiculousness into public policy in NYC in this instance. It is time to for all men to ally and defeat the feminazis and SJWs. This thread is a microcosm of the future of the democrat party.

It was silly the first time you said it, and it's just as silly now. I'm a registered independent, and I have no problem with public pressure to encourage or enforce people to not take up multiple seats for no reason.

And I am not going to diminish my value as a human at the whim of women.

(05-08-2015 09:28 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  And I am not going to diminish my value as a human at the whim of women.

Taking up a single seat on public transit is diminishing your value as a human being? Sounds like someone is on the rag.

(05-08-2015 09:26 AM)UCF08 Wrote:  

(05-08-2015 09:23 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  As I said in another thread:

Quote:This person is who you have aligned yourself with and who your politicians pander to. Until you drop them from your party, you are guilty by association.

So there may be those liberals like UCF that disagree with this ridiculousness, but the alliance has now turned this ridiculousness into public policy in NYC in this instance. It is time to for all men to ally and defeat the feminazis and SJWs. This thread is a microcosm of the future of the democrat party.

It was silly the first time you said it, and it's just as silly now. I'm a registered independent, and I have no problem with public pressure to encourage or enforce people to not take up multiple seats for no reason.

I'm fine with that. I'm also fine with a campaign to end femalespreading too (the walking too slow while blocking the way for others issue described above).

I'd like the MTA to say "on the trains, men please close your legs and allow others to use adjoining seats. In the hallways and on platforms of the stations, women please do not block the way by walking slowly side to side."

For what it's worth, I don't like this ad targeting men for what seems to be arbitrary reasons, but I think it's fair to ask if they have anything similar about women using their purse to take up another seat or the like?

So, it's really a campaign to ask people to be polite.

They need to tell women to be polite and not carry a duffle bag as a purse and act like it deserves a seat.

(05-08-2015 09:29 AM)UCF08 Wrote:  

(05-08-2015 09:28 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  And I am not going to diminish my value as a human at the whim of women.

Taking up a single seat on public transit is diminishing your value as a human being? Sounds like someone is on the rag.

Yes, those seats are too small for one man. Shrinking myself and my personal space by crossing my legs reduces my value as a man and weakens my status relative to the others on the train. There is plenty of room for a proper woman in the next seat.

(05-08-2015 09:28 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  And I am not going to diminish my value as a human at the whim of women.

So your not married?

Quote:Riding the F train from Brooklyn to Manhattan on a recent afternoon, Fabio Panceiro, 20, was unapologetic about sitting with his legs spread apart.

The MTA has far more to worry about on the F train than 'manspreading'. The stations on that line are disgusting and the line is perennially subject to changes. Oh and how about the homeless people that stink out the train?

(05-08-2015 09:44 AM)ODUgradstudent Wrote:  

Quote:Riding the F train from Brooklyn to Manhattan on a recent afternoon, Fabio Panceiro, 20, was unapologetic about sitting with his legs spread apart.

The MTA has far more to worry about on the F train than 'manspreading'. The stations on that line are disgusting and the line is perennially subject to changes. Oh and how about the homeless people that stink out the train?

Yeah, John Rocker gave a good description of that train.