The First Male Has Been Arrested For “Manspreading” In NYC

[Rhea]

Hearing short people complain about dimensions is also 'fucking funny'.

If you are short enough that your feet don't even hit the floor when you are seated, your experience on a plane seat would have to be astronomically better than mine. I'm 6'8" and I need to buy two economy seats just to get my knees behind the seat in front of me.

Definitely better, except when people decide to encroach upon my space, and then it becomes - it's hard to believe, actually, how entitled some people are! Most aren't though, so on planes I'm in a pretty good place. Actually, I not short, I just have very short shins and arms.

Also, cars, are you serious? Buy a compact car that will cost you half as much in purchase price and running costs and you'll have all the smallness you want.

I'm not looking for comfort. I'm looking to get far enough away from the airbag to not be killed by it, since it is designed to inflate for people 5 inches further away from it than I am. But this is not a choice available to me. So you can see this is not a frivolous complaint about comfort. 6'8" guys are not getting killed by airbags.

I own a long wheelbase sedan not because I want a v6 engine and a gigantic back seat or have a family to cart around, but because I literally cannot fit in anything smaller.

I tried to let a friend drive my tiny convertible at a race once. He is 6'8". Yeah, literally could not. His knees were compressed between the steering wheel and the door and could not turn the wheel with the door closed. Luckily, another racer was willing to switch co-drivers and he still got to enjoy the race.

 

[beero1000]

The airbag claims interested me, so I did a quick search.

Newgard calculates that for drivers taller than 6 foot 3 inches, air bags were associated with a 5% greater risk of serious injury. He also estimates that for drivers shorter than 4 foot 11 inches, air bags were associated with a 4% increase in the risk of serious injury.

So tall and short people are in more danger. However, 4-5% increases on not-much isn't anything I'd waste any time worrying about...

 

[mojorising]

I was a victim of manspreading on a recent flight from Gold Coast to Canberra.

I managed to get control of the armrest by getting seated first but my neighbour used manspreading to encroach his knee 1 inch into my personal seat-space

Thus forcing me to try and keep my knee away from his knee to avoid the dreaded man-on-man knee-touch which is even worse than the elbow nudge

I wish I could afford to fly business.

This is where it pays to be gay. Or just be really comfortable with making complete strangers feel really UNcomfortable. Tenderly glance at the manspreader, and his knee that is touching yours and rub Hus knee with your own in a clearly intentional way, flirt with him, and ask him if he wants to go back to your hotel room when the plane lands so you can (insert a really gross/obscure/squick fetish here).

If he takes offense and keeps doing it, say "hey, not my fault you gave the 'signal'! Don't you know that's the signal for 'I want you to (do thing) with me'?'

Thanks Jarhyn, that is a top idea and will be sure to try it at the next opportunity!

Actually last time I flew home 2 weeks ago I got bumped to Business for no reason. The first time in 20 years of almost weekly business trip flying that I have been bumped.

I much prefer getting a female seat companion.

I am a proper gent and I do not engage in man-spreading and I let her have the armrest.

I just sit back and enjoy not having the threat of rival male encroachment into my seat territory for an hour and a half!

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Are you explaining man spreading as some sort of dominance game?

 

[RavenSky]

I'm with you Rhea. Every single complaint by men about the "one size fits all" seats are complaining about seats designed BY men FOR men.

Women are an afterthought in most ergonomic designs for the most part. Women who are on the short side, still worry whether their seat belts will break their necks in a car crash (the seatbelt crossing their necks rather than their chest region) or if the airbag will kill them.

Perhaps these seats were designed by average men FOR average men, not overgrown men.

No, they were designed by engineers to get the maximum number of bodies onto a plane, which generally works much more against men than against women.

The average chair dimension has not changed since the 1950s, yet across the entire globe people have gotten taller and fatter. You can sit on a chair, and have the entire length of your buttock and leg supported, and then have the hide to complain?

You can sleep on a bed and not have your feet hit the footboard or not have them hang over the edge, and you have the hide to complain?

You can walk through corridors and doorways certain you won't be brained by a low hanging fixture or doorjamb, and you have the hide to complain?

You can have all the legroom you could ever want on a plane, and you have the hide to complain?

I suspect Rhea is too short to comfortably reach the bars or straps on the subways/buses, and since apparently some of the men around here are either too long-legged or too big-balled to sit comfortably, I recommend the men stand and let Rhea sit.

Problem solved.

 

[RavenSky]

Are you explaining man spreading as some sort of dominance game?

Mansplaining manspreading?

 

[dismal]

I much prefer getting a female seat companion.

As does, you know, pretty much everyone. Male, female, straight, gay, whatever. This is evidence current one size fits all seating is unfair.

 

[Rhea]

I suspect Rhea is too short to comfortably reach the bars or straps on the subways/buses, and since apparently some of the men around here are either too long-legged or too big-balled to sit comfortably, I recommend the men stand and let Rhea sit.

Problem solved.

On buses, they can have it. I'm not actually short. Just very short shins & arms. So I'm happy standing. But in an airplane, they gotta keep their knees to themselves.

The airbag claims interested me, so I did a quick search.

Interesting that they say the risk is for bot short and tall drivers and then say,

Newgard's study doesn't provide information on how far the drivers and passengers were seated from the air bags in the crashes.

Distance from the air bag is the most important factor in preventing air bag injuries, according to background information on the web site of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

"There is no precise height and weight at which an individual is considered to be at risk" from air bags, says the NHTSA. "The primary determinant as to whether an individual will be injured by a deploying air bag is the distance from which the individual is seated from the air bag."

And then this advice always makes me shake my head a bit,

Short drivers should move the driver's seat back and tilt the seat back slightly to allow space between the driver's chest and the steering wheel.

Dude, short drivers are close to the wheel for a reason. SO THEY CAN REACH IT (and so they can reach the pedals, too). If I move the seat back and also tilt it, I can no longer hold the wheel to steer. That is such weird advice. What are they thinking that all the short people think, I'm short so I will sit as close as I can just because I like to, but I really could fit another 6 inches back?

And I'm wondering why those tall drivers were sitting so close in that guy's study.

 

[Metaphor]

Getting killed by a car's safety features

STOP. Please name a case where short people were killed because of a car's safety features. A single case.

because they weren't designed for shorter people - yeah, I'm going to complain. Call me crazy.

You make an unevidenced claim that safety features will kill you. You're not crazy, but perhaps you have no sense of perspective from down there.

As for other seating - as was pointed out -your feet dangle, so you have no stability in the seat should the car seat/airline seat/office seat shift and the dangle pulls your bottom forward so your lower back starts to ache. If you move forward to have your feet on the floor, then the chair seat cuts into the back of your thighs which can lead to varicose veins, cut-off circulation and nerve injury.

And I would take dangling over permanent knee damage. I've had my feet dangling before for extended periods, and I've had my knees pressed into metal for extended periods. There's no competition.

And you don't have to sit on telephone books - for years - to use your computer keyboard at your office effectively.

You are correct. I have to sit at a desk which is already all the way to the max, but is still too low and my knees scrape the top. Further, I have to have my seat at the lowest setting, instead of the highest, just to fit under there.

You don't have to use a pillow - for years - to push you forward in your SUV because the seat is already pulled forward as far as it will go and you still can't reach the pedals safely.

By a compact car ffs. Am I to take this complaint seriously? Or are you about to tell me that the only way to raise a family is if you have an SUV?

Yet you don't have to jump to see a sign over people's heads.

Srsly?

You don't have to climb or find a ladder or a taller person to reach things on the top shelf.

That's correct. I have to stoop EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY UNTIL I AM DEAD at faucets and basins and cupboards and kitchen benches.

BTW, I'm the taller person you find and ask me to get the can off the shelf. I'm the one doing you a favour.

You don't have to eat from a plate set on a table that hits you chest high because the table is higher off the ground than your height can reach.

That's correct. All furniture is too low and eating is awkward for me because of it.

 

[mojorising]

Are you explaining man spreading as some sort of dominance game?

I guess the rationale is situation-dependent.

Could be casual laziness.

Could be a territorial threat.

Could be a homosexual advance.

Could be a heterosexual advance.

Could be a threat display like maoris sticking their tongues out in the Haka.

 

[beero1000]

I just want to say that this is the best game of misery poker I've ever seen. Proceed.

 

[RavenSky]

An XOJane contributor came up with her own way of dealing with manspreaders:

“Excuse me,” I said, using my bony ass to crush his thigh. Outside of a horror movie, I have never seen anyone react so quickly to get away from another human being. There was terror, then disgust, then anger. I took out my book and turned to him. “Thank you,” I said, and then smiled like Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom. It would have been rude otherwise.

http://www.xojane.com/issues/sitting-on-manspreaders

 

[GenesisNemesis]

I've never personally seen a "manspreader", also can we stop using childish words?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

An XOJane contributor came up with her own way of dealing with manspreaders:

I sympathize with the idea that balls are essentially to two sweaty hard-boiled eggs swinging around in a foot-sock from the floor of a DSW, but I have a vagina and though it would be great to air it out on a crowded train, I don’t. Why? Because I understand basic concepts of courtesy.

Because I understand basic concepts of courtesy.

Because I understand basic concepts of courtesy.


Because I understand basic concepts of courtesy. ​

 

[dismal]

I've never personally seen a "manspreader", also can we stop using childish words?

Yeah, the thing that is really a blight on our society is airplane seat recliners. Talk about people who violate basic concepts of common courtesy.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Thanks Jarhyn, that is a top idea and will be sure to try it at the next opportunity!

Of course, that assumes that such action doesn't actually give your seatmate a raging hard-on, mojo.
You might want to use this tactic carefully....

 

[Malintent]

And im still perplex. This is s laughing matter?

I apologize for the confusion. Yes. Yes it is very funny to me that a man is complaining that public transportation is not designed with his testicles in mind. This comes from a woman whose arms are about 5 inches shorter than a typical man's, who has to sit in front of an airbag designed for a man every time she drives. And whose legs fall asleep while traveling because all the public seats are designed to accommodate those men and my legs can't reach the floor. And he doesn't feel there's enough space for his testicles. And just, yeah, that's fucking funny.

lol... yea, and nevermind the followup issue of now there being laws where people are arrested for BEING TO SMALL TO BE SITTING IN THE BIG SEATS

 

[dismal]

I apologize for the confusion. Yes. Yes it is very funny to me that a man is complaining that public transportation is not designed with his testicles in mind. This comes from a woman whose arms are about 5 inches shorter than a typical man's, who has to sit in front of an airbag designed for a man every time she drives. And whose legs fall asleep while traveling because all the public seats are designed to accommodate those men and my legs can't reach the floor. And he doesn't feel there's enough space for his testicles. And just, yeah, that's fucking funny.

lol... yea, and nevermind the followup issue of now there being laws where people are arrested for BEING TO SMALL TO BE SITTING IN THE BIG SEATS

Well, fortunately progressives are mainly concerned with identity group-level fairness not individual-level fairness.

Thus if we design gender specific seats to equilibrate the average comfort level of men and women we achieve the appropriate gender level of fairness required and needn't concern ourselves overmuch with individuals.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

lol... yea, and nevermind the followup issue of now there being laws where people are arrested for BEING TO SMALL TO BE SITTING IN THE BIG SEATS

Well, fortunately progressives are mainly concerned with identity group-level fairness not individual-level fairness.

Thus if we design gender specific seats to equilibrate the average comfort level of men and women we achieve the appropriate gender level of fairness required and needn't concern ourselves overmuch with individuals.

Watch it. We might require you rent an approved seat on the bus, much like the stadiums that forbid outside seat cushions and back support.

And it will be a Porphyry Chair that allows the driver to check your junk like they do the Pope*.


(See legend of Pope Joan.)

 

[ronburgundy]

No, they were designed by engineers to get the maximum number of bodies onto a plane, which generally works much more against men than against women.

The average chair dimension has not changed since the 1950s, yet across the entire globe people have gotten taller and fatter.

Actually, coach seats on the major airlines like American and United have shrunk over the last 30 years by about 2 inches in width an 2-5 inches in "depth" (i.e. legroom), depending upon the plane.
That coach "premium" section which costs another $50-$70 just gets you seats with legroom that normal coach had 20 years ago. To make it worse, planes with in-seat screen usually have a hard-drive box under every seat, eliminated 30% of the space for your feet.

Even as a 6'3" man, I have painfully felt this change. My knees cannot fit on most planes, unless I "manspread".