Men were banned from sitting on trains and buses with their legs spread wide apart. Feminists say that legs spread wide apart is a demonstration of machismo and microaggressions.
The Spanish capital has banned men from sitting on trains and buses with their legs spread wide apart, reports Ravneet Ahluwalia in the Independent. The city's municipal transportation system (EMT) plans to install new signs on trains. The organization released a statement on Wednesday, saying: “The new information icon indicates that sitting in a position that makes others uncomfortable is prohibited. It should remind transport users to maintain civic responsibility and respect the privacy of each passenger.”
It is not yet clear whether violators will be fined, the article says.
The author reports that the new measure was preceded by a months-long campaign organized by the residents of Madrid. The hashtag #MadridSinManspreading (Madrid without men spreading their legs wide. - Ed.) has gone viral on social networks. A petition was then submitted to the mayor of Madrid. In April, the CUP took the issue to government level and asked for a national campaign against sitting with legs wide apart. The party called the pose “a display of machismo and microaggressions that cause discomfort to the person affected.”
In 2014, a campaign against sitting with legs wide apart took place in New York. The New York Police Department even arrested several violators, although the charges against them were later dropped, the article says.
What is Manspreading?
Manspreading - Male spreading of legs in transport (“disrespectful sitting”) is the habit of some men to sit on public transport with their legs spread wide apart, thereby taking up more than one seat.
The phenomenon has long been the subject of jokes on the internet, as well as criticism and debate in the US, UK, Turkey and Canada. The English-language neologism manspreading was launched by feminists on the social network Tumblr in 2013, when a campaign against such “transport machismo” was launched. The word "manspreading" quickly gained popularity in the United States and even became a candidate for "Word of the Year" from the American Dialectological Society.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Sound Transit in Seattle supported the action by issuing posters instructing passengers to remain respectful of other passengers on buses and trains. Transportation officials in cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C., however, deny the problem is that serious. The MTA is campaigning under the slogan "Dude, stop spreading yourselves, please!" (Dude, stop the spread please!). Activists who believe that the scale of manspreading is becoming more and more dangerous are resorting to combating it with their own methods: for example, photographing this behavior of passengers and posting them on the Internet with corresponding derogatory comments.
While activists criticize the practice of manspreading as rude and inconsiderate of other passengers who have to stand, they themselves have been criticized for focusing exclusively on men, while women sometimes also take up more than one seat on transport. The practice of posting photographs online has been criticized as unacceptable public humiliation or shaming.
In response to this idea from feminists, this picture gained popularity. People also remembered famous examples from painting confirming that it is more comfortable for men to sit this way.
Madrid authorities have banned men from spreading their legs on public transport June 9th, 2017
Residents of the Spanish capital have complained to transport officials for years that some men adopt "irritating" body positions on buses. The municipal transport company, which acts as the public carrier in Madrid, has issued notices prohibiting men from spreading their knees wide apart on public transport. Information signs calling for compliance with this rule will appear in all subway cars, buses and commuter trains.
According to The Local, this ban was a response from transport authorities to numerous and long-standing complaints from passengers. They complained that the style of sitting with legs spread wide, common among the stronger sex, steals personal space from those around them. It is often impossible to take an empty seat next to such a man. And on buses, protruding knees make it difficult to squeeze to the exit, especially during the morning rush hour.
A red icon depicting a man with legs wide apart will appear in the notice next to information about the smoking ban and calls for cleanliness in the carriage or bus interior. The caption under the picture will read: “Respect the space of others.”
Public transport during rush hour is like a good old-fashioned game of chairs, with more players than seats and passengers always on the alert, ready to occupy the suddenly vacated square centimeters of seating. At the same time, absolutely everyone is annoyed by individuals who comfortably place their bodies on one and a half, or even two seats - all thanks to their legs spread wide. The problem, of course, is not only and not so much Russian - for example, in New York they recently began arresting men who sit on the subway with their legs spread wide. The Village asked a psychologist, social anthropologist and psychotherapist why men around the world do this.
Ekaterina Bryantseva
President of the Association of Psychologists of St. Petersburg
Of course, not all men sit in public transport with their legs spread wide apart. Let's talk about those who do this. In this case, firstly, the culture of sex education matters. It has long been believed that a girl should maintain honor from a young age. This stereotype also manifests itself in sexual relations: legs grow from an intimate place, which in the female body is the starting point - this is both a point of constraint and the place from which children appear. A woman should hide it. According to etiquette, a crouching woman's legs should be joined.
A man must demonstrate that he is a male. If we take the classics of body language, legs spread wide are an indicator of sexual readiness. This does not mean that a man is ready to copulate with anyone - this is an indicator of an active state.
Let's return to the origins of psychoanalysis and grandfather Freud, who said that a person has two leading instincts - eros and thanatos. Thanatos is the desire for death or destruction. Eros is the desire to receive pleasure: not only sexual, but also from other things (food, clothing, some actions). Sex and aggression are at the core of male behavior. A man must demonstrate dominance through his sex (gender).
Most often, men sit with their legs spread, either in search, or having some kind of sexual insufficiency, or trying to pretend to be macho. There is such a concept - overcompensation: if I have not resolved a certain personal issue, I begin to unconsciously demonstrate it.
Physiology matters too. The male genital organs are, as it were, placed outside the body: they must remain at a lower temperature in order for sperm to mature properly. In women, on the contrary, everything is hidden in the body (at a higher temperature). And many men explain the spread legs this way: “to keep it cool,” “to ventilate.”
But most often men who have not resolved issues with social status sit like this. The criterion of masculinity is not only the ability to copulate, it is a certain set that includes social status, financial capabilities, and so on. As a rule, men who are at a high social level and have good financial resources follow the rules of etiquette. I have not seen a single businessman who would sit with his legs spread wide apart.
Denis Gvozdikov
sociologist, social anthropologist
Perhaps this behavior can be interpreted through the lens of human ethology: a man who “shows” his genitals and takes up more space is exhibiting implicit dominant behavior. However, this is just a guess.
The factors that encourage aggression or competition are, of course, modern. After all, we are dealing with the phenomena of a mass and anonymous society. And public transport is a technological institute that is largely devoid of soul.
Dominance and competitiveness, as well as aggression, are also characteristic of women. Another thing is that men, as a rule, are larger and physically stronger, and suppressing the “rival” by force is the easiest way.
Demonstration is sometimes more effective and safer than an outright threat.
However, it is also true that in conditions of anonymity we may perceive a threat where there really is none. Therefore, the most reasonable way is to politely ask the passenger to move a little.
Elizaveta Zeldina
psychoanalyst, teacher at the Eastern European Institute of Psychoanalysis
The question of why some men sit with their legs spread wide in public transport requires, in my opinion, several clarifications.
The first concerns location. We are talking about public transport, but if you look around, a large number of men sit with their legs spread in other public places. Men sit with their legs spread and at home on the sofa. Is the public interested in the issue of outstretched legs, or only the localization of these legs in space? Will the public judge a man if he spreads his legs in a bar, or on the beach, or at home?
The second clarification concerns the fact that it is men, not women, who sit with their legs spread wide. But if you look around, a large number of women (if they are not wearing a skirt) also sit with their legs spread. Will the public judge a woman who sits with her legs spread apart? Unless she's wearing a skirt. Because if yes, the answer suggests itself: it will, and how.
These clarifications lead me to ask a completely different question: who is asking, and what is on the mind of someone who is going to judge a man for disrespect? This is exactly the question I would like to answer. In psychoanalysis we often deal with fantasies. The point is not what the other does, but how the subject reacts to his actions, or, more precisely, fantasizes. The fantasy of disrespect concerns the one who expresses it. Maybe he doesn't respect himself and sees that that's all that others do. And there is nothing reprehensible in this fantasy, it is important to understand it, then actions will be taken that will really solve the issue or problem.
Illustration: Nastya Grigorieva
