After Boris Johnson was caught manspreading we look at the rise of men hogging all the leg room
The term, describing a man sitting with legs wide apart, seems to be becoming more popular among celebs
IT was Theresa May’s first official cabinet photograph as PM but Boris Johnson did his best to hog all the attention – and leg room.
The Foreign Secretary dominated the picture with a serious display of “manspreading” — sitting with his legs set unsociably wide apart.
Placed between Education Secretary Justine Greening and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, the mop-haired MP is the latest to be called out for his lack of boundaries.
The term manspreading was coined to describe the way men, particularly on public transport, take up more space than they should — often at the expense of women sitting next to them.
It was first used in 2013, when social media website Tumblr began an anti-manspreading campaign.
On it, men on trains and buses were photographed while extending their legs out beyond what is socially acceptable.
Sign of dominance
Two years later the term even made the Oxford English Dictionary.
It describes manspreading as: “The practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transportation, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seats.”
Last May, two men were arrested for manspreading on a New York subway.
The pair were slapped with an Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal — which meant charges against them would be dropped providing they did not get arrested again in the near future.
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And earlier in the year the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority rolled out an ad campaign reminding men to “mind the gap” and keep knees closer together while seated on public transport.
Boris isn’t the only famous face to have been guilty of manspreading.
Actors Tom Hanks, Matthew Broderick and Bradley Cooper and rapper Jay Z have also been snapped making the public faux pas.
Despite the criticism, though, research has found some women are attracted to manspreading — which can be seen as a signal of dominance and sexual attractiveness.
Tanya Vacharkulksemsuk, a post-doctoral researcher from University of California, Berkeley, in the US found that the spreading out of legs and arms is viewed as more appealing when males do it.
In a study, she found that images of men showing expansive body postures were liked by 87 per cent of females.
But perhaps it’s best to keep them closed for cabinet photos, BoJo.