A men’s rights organization has sponsored a petition to allow “manspreading” to continue on Toronto public transit. The petition, sponsored by the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE), said in its description that the term is “sexist” and any possible ban on it would be a “blow to men’s rights.”
The petition gained over 1,200 supporters since it went up Dec. 25.
“The whole campaign to ban manspreading is sexist, biased, dishonest, and targeting men—it’s basically vilifying men,” said Geoff Stone, spokesperson for CAFE.
The term “manspreading” refers to men on public transit who spread their legs in a V-shape form, encroaching on adjacent seating space, limiting, or preventing seating for other passengers.
The phenomenon has recently attracted online attention after New York City’s transit authority began putting up posters with the slogan “Dude . . . Stop the Spread, Please” in attempts to rid the behaviour from its subways.
The issue prompted a fierce debate on Reddit’s Toronto page, while a Tumblr blog titled “Men Taking Up Too Much Space on the Train,” featuring male leg-spreaders, has been around since May 2013.
“It’s a test of how gullible you are to look at these collections of images and believe there is a real problem going on,” Stone said of the online images.
Stone said the campaign against “manspreading” is “manufactured hysteria,” and hopes the petition can prevent an “Orwellian limitation with officers or regulators measuring how much we’re spreading our legs and handing out tickets.”
“We’re trying to maintain a little bit of sanity,” he said.
Lyndsay Kirkham, an English professor at Humber College, said though “manspreading” is rarely “conscious misogyny,” it’s a gendered issue and the campaign against it is not unfair towards men.
“It is the atmosphere of misogyny that is a component of our society that grants many men a feeling that they can take up as much space as they want,” she said.
Kirkham said she disagrees with a National Post panel that dismissed the “manspreading” issue as “silly.”
“It might be silly to the three white [male columnists on the panel], but it’s not silly to women who are triggered or being forced to confront those who are doing it,” she said.
The petition’s description also said men have to spread their legs due to their “biology.” Dean Elterman, a urologist at the University of Toronto, said this is rarely the case.
“A small and reasonable spacing of the legs is likely appropriate, while sitting wide apart like a tripod is not necessary,” he said. “Sitting in such a way to adjust genitalia so that they are not compressed is entirely possible for the majority of men.”
Some Carleton students said they’ve faced “manspreading” on Ottawa transit.
“I think it’s annoying if they don’t allow people to sit near them,” said Hollie Murdy, a second-year commerce student.
Murdy said the term should be changed to reflect both genders.
“You could rename it to call it just ‘people taking up too much space,’” she said.
