Why do men HAVE to ‘manspread’?

I've wondered, not often, how it must feel to sit down with that 'stuff' inbetween one's legs. I imagine it's possibly more comfortable to spread out.

Not that I'm in favour of it, it's awful to witness, but maybe it's just more comfortable.

Overweight men do this more than others in my experience.
Confident/ arrogant overweight men do it even more frequently.
My DP never does it and neither did my exDH.

lemsip

it's all to do with their appendage tightness of trousers I think

Nothing personal lemsip………but that sounds like a load of b******s to me! 🤷‍♀️😂

It's even more annoying when they incessantly shake their legs up and down.

it's all to do with their appendage tightness of trousers I think

I remember trying to sit at a table for two in a restaurant but a man sitting in the seat backing mine had pushed it right back so that he could spread his legs and I couldn’t pull my seat out so I politely asked him if he could move forwards, which he did, a few meagre centimetres, so we had to dine elsewhere, that table being the only one on offer, but not before I told members of staff why we were leaving and warning them that they might have to negotiate with the uncooperative man if another couple came in. And just for the record was plenty of space for even the biggest diner to sit comfortably. That was a few moons ago I doubt I would be so quick to walk away now.

SpinDriftCoastal

Some do, some don't. Does it have anything to do with upbringing? Or, is it down to character? Would be an interesting study.

Am I the only one who remembers Terry Wogan manspreading. And he was wearing very pale trousers.
Terry was educated by the Jesuits.

I remember Ada, she wore knee length flesh pink knickers that were elasticated at the knee and she seemed to like to flaunt them by sitting with her legs spread.

Does anyone remember Les Dawson's take on Ada Shufflebotham in Cissie & Ada? She used to sit like that.

There are some very big people about.
I was boarding a Singapore airlines plane and a little Asian lady was being asked to move to make way for a giant of a man to accommodate his legs!

I thought it unfair but the staff obviously thought he should have her front row seat.
She obliged.

On a crowded London bus yesterday, I'd been to a funeral and was feeling hot on a seat by a sunny window. I moved to the other, cooler side where a large youngish man was taking up two seats with his backpack. I said, "Sorry, but I was frying over there." He was so ungracious about moving his stuff and it made me quite uncomfortable. And annoyed.
To be fair, on the two trains home, I was offered seats by two men as well as a woman.

jakuss

Guess

Guess what exactly jakuss?

They also think that they are entitled to both arm rests on a plane. Not great when you have the middle seat and there one on each side.

I sometimes wish my OH would manspread. He insists on sitting with one leg crossed over the other so it sticks out and gets in everyone's way (he's 6'2" tall.)

He's also got terrible varicose veins and I have to keep telling his not to cross his legs, but he still does it!

TerriBull

It is a thing for sure. Although anatomical differences come into play so that's a bit of a mitigating factor. Nevertheless, there do seem to be men who lack spacial awareness as to how much room they're occupying.

I generally agree with these comments. I would add though that its not only men who are oblivious sometimes as to how much room they're occupying.
30 years commuting into London by train and tube. Don't get me started.

Guess

It's not something I consciously do, and in a restricted space I certainly wouldn't. But as I sit in the pub now, I observe that it has occurred naturally, as it were (nobody is seated either side of me).

It is a thing for sure. Although anatomical differences come into play so that's a bit of a mitigating factor. Nevertheless, there do seem to be men who lack spacial awareness as to how much room they're occupying.

Yes, ir they were monkeys, they'd probably have blue "bits".

Perhaps they just want to display their ‘manhood’ and show what big boys they are ?

It is annoying. I agree

I followed the link and read the article. I also read some of the comments. I particularly liked the one that complained about a woman telling a man how to sit. The man who wrote this comment clearly failed to take on board the fact that the article specifically mentioned manspreading on the subway as being rude. Presumably because it is not only aesthetically offensive it is also very uncomfortable to share a seat with a spreader.

I think its just an inbuilt behaviour, a man thing.

Witzend

As someone on MN once suggested in this context, ‘Oh, dear - if you really need SO much space for your balls, it’s high time you sought a diagnosis.’ 😂

As for the rucksack, in such cases I always say, ‘Could you move your bag, please?’
I do get the odd eye roll, but nobody’s ever refused.

I wouldn't have the courage to say the first 😉. On the subject of bag moving I did some years ago, when I was in a fairly foul mood anyway, say to a man who ignored me hovering by the seat his bag was occupying "would you like to move your bag or shall I just sit on it?" he moved it pretty sharply 😁 Not sure I'd have the courage to say it nowadays, but I don't tend to use public transport at peak times anyway.

Interesting article:

Extract:

Manspreading is something that we don’t see cross-culturally (here’s a scholarly article from the 1950s that shows that even back then, knees-together sitting occurred at different frequencies in different cultures). Only a certain type of dudebro or man-man manspreads. Schuler even admitted that after being told that his natural sitting position is knees apart, he still avoids manspreading on the subway because he knows it’s rude.

This means that manspreading is a cultural phenomenon because regardless of one’s anatomy, one can choose not to practice it.

The article then goes on to discuss anatomy.

medium.com/@cvans/the-false-biology-of-manspreading-f789abd709f5