Oh my god, I’m exhausted just having to READ through the nonsense in this thread. You are a commenting champion; I want to give you a hug and an energy drink. It’s pretty meta, though, watching people use mainsplaining to deny the existence of manspreading!

the topic isn’t why men sit with their legs spread, the topic is why do men feel entitled to take up more than their fair share of space on public transport. the answer has very little to do with their balls and more to do with their sense of entitlement.

And yet guys, even ones with strong thighs, have no problem whatsoever confining themselves to their own seats when the person next to them is another guy.

Even if it is “natural,” men have no problem confining themselves to their own seat when they’re sitting next to other men. If if it’s not too uncomfortable to avoid pressing up against other men, it's not too uncomfortable to avoid pressing up against women.

Come on dude, the ball thing requires minor spreading, nothing that would warrant the kind of thing that pushes into other people’s space. Have you actually looked at the photos of men doing this enough to cause a problem?

THIS. Women also feel more physically comfortable with our legs apart. We’re not biologically predisposed to keep our legs together, we’ve just been conditioned that sitting with legs spread is a wanton display. It’s kind of a breathtaking example of the power of socialization to override our own physical comfort.

“proportionally, a man needs to secure more seat space using his legs than a woman would need to in order for the man to maintain enough room to sit up straight in his seat.”

It’s rude no matter what, and it becomes intentional once you’ve had your attention called to it and you fail to remedy your thoughtless behavior.

I imagine it's not for most. What seems intentionally rude is when it's a cramped and full subway, and someone has to sit in the seat next to you and you don't bring the knees in a little. None of us are comfortable.

I’m 5'8" and sitting with my legs together makes my hips hurt too, except I’ve been socialized to do it since I was a baby so I’ve learned to accept it as normal. Suck it up and deal so long as you share space with other people. You want to air your balls, buy a car.

I once had a 6 hour flight where the skinny young man next to me spread out his legs like his balls were on fire, and then commandeered the arm rest.

Your Pips are the size of two subway seats? Dude, see a doctor immediately!

it’s natural to take a shit, too, but we don’t do that on public transit because it’s rude and inconsiderate to everyone we have to share space with.

No one cares about the comfort of your balls. Cross your legs at the ankles and get socialized to co-exist with other human beings.

Funny how men get to spread and take up as much room as they want because biology. But if a woman needs to breastfeed her child in public, there are all kinds of laws and ordinances against the wanton display of nipplage.

Assuming this is true:

But I don’t think anyone would consider a man spreading his knees only shoulder width apart to be “manspreading,”that’s a pretty reasonable distance, it’s more when men spread their legs far wider than that and take up the equivalent of two seats.

Alright, I get it. It’s not necessary (in my opinion) but since a man’s shoulders are wider, if they spread their legs to shoulder width they take up the same amount of space as they would if they had their knees together. The problem arises when a man spread his legs farther than this, like if it looks like the…

This explanation just fails on a fundamental, mathematical level. Even if we buy into the shoulder/hip argument, it is never necessary to spread your legs so far apart that they drift into the adjacent seats. THAT is manspreading. I don’t give two shits if you take up 100% of your own seat space, but when you start…

I don’t care if they have bowling balls for testicles. Stay out of other people’s allotted spaces. I have huge tits, bigger than any balls I’ve ever seen, but you know what? Somehow I manage to keep my arms within the confines of one seat on all transport I use. I don’t splay out and expect everyone else to…