page_title: Manspreading
section_title: Manspreading in transport systems
hierarchical_section_title: Manspreading / Manspreading in transport systems
caption_attribution_description: Español: La Empresa Municipal de Transportes (EMT) va a incorporar a la señalización informativa al usuario que se encuentra en el interior de su flota de autobuses un pictograma específico para evitar el manspreading (término inglés que denomina la postura de los hombres que abren excesivamente sus piernas cuando se sientan ocupando los asientos contiguos al suyo). Este nuevo icono informativo es similar al que ya existe en otros sistemas de transporte a escala mundial para indicar la prohibición de mantener una postura corporal que incomoda a otras personas.
context_page_description: Manspreading or man-sitting is the practice of some men sitting in public transport with legs wide apart, thereby covering more than one seat. The public debate began when an anti-manspreading campaign started on the social media website Tumblr in 2013; the term appeared a year later. The journalist Babara Ellen described it in 2013 as "essentially anger at the space these men feel entitled to take up". OxfordDictionaries.com added the word "manspreading" in August 2015. Manspreading is considered a form of microaggression against women because it could be disrespectful to their personal space. Lyndsay Kirkham, a professor of English at Humber College, called manspreading a metaphor for men being given permission to take up more space in society.
  The term has received substantial criticism, from both feminists and men's rights activists. Feminist writer Cathy Young called 'Manspreading' a gender-based slur, arguing that the usage of the term is 'about shaming directed at males.'
context_section_description: In 2014 the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in the New York metropolitan area and Sound Transit of Seattle instituted poster campaigns encouraging respectful posture when other passengers have to stand due to crowding on buses and trains. The MTA campaign, which criticized many behaviors such as leaning on poles and applying make-up, used the slogan "Dude, stop the spread please!" Transport officials in Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington D.C. have not noted complaints against manspreading in particular although the Philadelphia Transportation Authority at that time had an etiquette campaign with the slogan “Dude It’s Rude... Two Seats — Really?” aimed at people who occupied seats with bags. Despite social media pressure and public debate to extend the campaign to the Canadian city of Toronto a representative of the Toronto Transit Commission stated “We’re not commenting on the manspreading campaign", and she reminded the users to be courteous to each other, allowing someone else to take an empty seat beside them. Since 2017 taking more than one seat is forbidden by Madrid Municipal Transport Company. In some cases, people who find manspreading offensive have taken to photographing manspreading, and posting those images on the Internet.
caption: Campaign encouraging respectful posture by Madrid Municipal Transport Company in 2017.
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