Is there anything men do that can’t be banned? Now in Madrid, men will no longer be able to sit comfortably on public transit:
If only every city could take a cue from Madrid when it comes to manspreading. Per The Local, Madrid just announced that it has banned manspreading—when a man opens his legs to take up a bunch of unnecessary room in an enclosed space—across all of its public transit services. Specifically, the city’s Municipal Transportation Company (EMT) will be implementing new signage in all of the trains and buses, which will hope to dissuade manspreaders from encroaching on the personal space of other riders.
“The new information icon indicates the prohibition of taking a seating position that bothers other people,” a statement issued by the EMT reads. “It’s to remind transport users to maintain civic responsibility and respect the personal space of everyone on board.” The sign features a stick man spreading his legs to cartoonishly large proportions on a public transportation seat, with a big red “X” and “respect the space of others” text accompanying it. It’s currently unclear, though, if non-law-abiding manspreaders will receive a fine if they continue to spread at will….
For women in Madrid, this news has been the culmination of many months of petitioning and protesting against manspreaders. Mujeres en Lucha launched a viral petition campaign titled #MadridSinManspreading (#MadridWithoutManspreading), which was sent to Madrid’s mayor, Manuela Carmena, as well as Madrid’s regional president, Cristina Cifuentes. “Manspreading is the practice of certain men sitting with their legs wide open on public transport, taking up other people’s space. It is not something that occurs sporadically, if you pay attention you’ll see that it is a very common practice,” the petition read. …
New York was one of the first major cities to openly campaign against manspreading on public transportation, when in late 2014 the “Dude, please stop the spreading” campaign was birthed by the MTA. As a result of the campaign, NYPD officers actually arrested men who were caught manspreading on the subway; charges were later dismissed. MTA Rules of Conduct prohibit passengers taking up more than one seat when doing so “would interfere or tend to interfere with the operation of the Authority’s transit system or the comfort of other passengers.”
Unbelievable. Women take up space in ways that are uncomfortable to others all the time, and no one arrests or fines them. What if a woman sets her shopping bags down in a seat and takes up extra space? Is this okay? What if a woman sits like this on public transit. Is this okay? This is just more misandry against men cultivated by entitled women and Uncle Tim men who pee sitting down. Maybe we need a campaign called “Girl, please stop the complaining.”
The real goal here is to control male space in any way possible–whether it be by banning a man stretching his legs or banning groups of men from congregating without women present to control their behavior. It is ultimately about the decline of male space in our society and it must be stopped before men just breathing air is banned.
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