Canadian group: Crackdown on ‘manspreading’ is nuts

japan_manspread

NYC_manspread

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As these signs from Japan, New York, and Paris (top to bottom) obviously prove, there’s a global war on sitting with your legs wide open on mass transit. But never fear, beleaguered manspreaders, some brave foot soldiers have joined the fight against intolerance.

In Canada, a group called the Canadian Association for Equality (CAFE) has started a Change.org petition to fight the Toronto Transit Commission’s efforts to convince passengers to shut their legs. Not only is the term manspreading sexist, the group notes, but efforts to prevent it can be harmful. From the petition:

This sets a very bad precedent as men opening their legs is something we have to do due to our biology. It sometimes can be physically painful for to close our legs and we can’t be expected to do so. We can’t force woman to stop breast feeding on busses or trains and we can’t force men or women to stop bringing strollers on, why should we force men to close their legs?

As of this morning, 1,777 people had signed the petition. Nearly all of those people were (and this is just a guess on our part) the same ones who say blue balls is a serious medical condition, and one therefore has to sex at that point or you’ll, like, die.

We’ve followed this phenomenon closely because we are no stranger to it here in ballsy San Francisco. Revisit some of our most egregious examples of Muni manspreading (also mansitting) and the shaming thereof.

h/t: Jezebel, Yahoo Health

Images via @GammaCounter, The New York Times, and News on Japan

Podcast archive, 2018

The Muni Diaries Podcast features stories told at Muni Diaries Live, as well as stories recorded in-studio for our spinoff project, San Francisco Diaries. Subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Stitcher Spotify Pocketcast Overcast RSS link See newest episodes | Go to 2019 podcast archive Ep. 70: One bear bar helped a visitor […]

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Missing the Muni madness that connected us all

Though the city’s charms were sometimes “charms” on the wrong day or in the wrong moment, we knew what we signed up for. For me, anyway, that includes the normalcy of playing standing Twister on a packed bus that only got fuller with every stop. Indeed, in the not-so-distant past, the Muni Metro platform looked like this and manspreading earned you a ticket to hell.

Amanda Staight, stalwart San Franciscan and Muni fan, put her thoughts on the matter into verse for the podcast. Amanda is also a great friend of Muni Diaries, a lover of neighborhoods, communities and casual conversations. Her favorite seat on the bus is next to the rear door, up the little steps in the back—I kinda like that one, too.

Hear Amanda’s piece here:

We’re four-plus months into SIP. How are you keeping your corner of San Francisco alive? Share your San Francisco stories, from on the rails or off, at muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com, on the socials @munidiaries on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.

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