As someone who has never been accused of manspreading — the act of sitting down with one’s legs parted to each side, consuming available space — I have nonetheless witnessed diatribe upon diatribe about how evil men are for engaging in this practice.
The habit is, without a doubt, real. But I have found that for every time a group is charged with some behavioral violation, the group leveling the charge has their own version of this.
Seems obvious. Humans and all. And yet, suggest as much and the chopping block will be polished for the lopping off of your head.
To which I say: Eh, that’s fine. Still not going to make me blind. Or pluck out my tongue.
It’s jacket season, which means that there’s a sterling chance when I go into the Starbucks, I won’t be able to find a seat, because women have provided their coats and bags with seats of their own. Like they’re buddies, out for a chai latte together.
This is another way to eat the space, but one that does not involve the sprawl of body parts. Recently I asked a woman at my local café if anyone was seated in the chair atop which her jacket was draped. I had nowhere else to go.
“My coat is there,” she replied. “It’s big.”
It was prodigious. Looked very warm. Which is entirely besides the point.
People are a great deal bothered when the people they wish to castigate behave, in truth, as they themselves often behave.
We’re an assortment of sects right now. These things are cyclical, but the minor transgressions of a man are fodder for Twitter-based disemboweling, which is why we hear so much about the great scourge of manspreading.
On another day, in another time, it will be something else. A vogue is not a truth-laden reality, often. It’s a cherry-picked selection from a mosaic of evidential truths. Selecting but the one example and making it seem like the others don’t exist, is a form of untruth. One might even say it’s a mode of lying.
When I am on the subway, and there is an elderly person or a pregnant woman, have a guess who is unlikely to relinquish their seat? The answer is everyone.
A lot OF people could care less that they are sitting and that person is standing. Not a gender thing.
What happens if you take a photo of a guy not giving up his seat and Twitterize it? Glorious, glorious digital victory! What if you do the same thing with a woman? Bring out your dead.
