Through a series of pointed public transport signs, Madrid has called time on manspreading. Gentlemen performing a groin-exposing seated demi plié (classic manspread) and taking up more than their fair share of seat space will now risk sanctioned public opprobrium.
Public transport cease-and-desist signs are the worst. They are a blunt tool for a tenuous social scourge, suggesting the last warning before it becomes a police matter. The fact is we do come in different shapes and sizes and spatial awareness varies, as do levels of tolerance. How is it possible to standardise this stuff? What next? A sign for people with pointy elbows to drop clasped hands downwards? Large footed individuals to stand on balls of feet during rush hour?
It confirms my favourite hypothesis that life is geared towards small, neat people who don’t get in the way. I’m no libertarian (clearly) but manspreading is often accidental and carried out by people (men) who don’t fold neatly into increasingly tiny spaces. I see no evidence that it is some sort of gateway crime or that, left unchecked, it will escalate with perpetrators progressing to a downward dog yoga pose on the top deck of the number 73.
