Some of these ideas might actually work if they were put into action.
Manspreading on public transport is an issue that affects commuters around the world, and here in Japan things are no different. In fact, it’s such a problem that transport companies, like subway operators Tokyo Metro, do their best to draw attention to the issue with a variety of awareness posters reminding passengers to leave room for others.
▼ Santa reminds people to be courteous when using seats on trains.
In spite of mind-your-manners posters like these, the problem of manspreading still persists on trains in Japan, as Twitter user @N7a_T2u recently reminded us with this tweet.
▼ “The difference between space for men and space for women is too extreme. Can’t they just close their legs a bit to create more space for others?”
In the tweet, two men can be seen with their legs splayed open, as the women on either side of them take up a fraction of the space by comparison. After posting the tweet, @N7a_T2u went on to say:
“Even in tight spaces, I basically try to give as much room as I can to someone if they’re next to me. However, if there’s a time when I feel cramped in, like the women in this photo, I feel like I can’t say anything. If there’s a vacant seat next to you it’s different, but when there’s someone next to you, can’t you just leave a little room? I think just that small kind of courtesy would make a big difference.”
Since posting the original tweet just a few days ago, it quickly racked up over 72,000 retweets and more than 138,000 likes, with people hotly debating the issue.
“Yep, I see this all the time on public transport and it makes me sooooo angry.”
“You can’t just target men. I’ve been inconvenienced by women who take up space by crossing their legs.”
“The only reason these men have their legs open is because women are sitting next to them. If a man sat next to them, they’d close their legs.”
“Another example of why it’s good to have women-only carriages on trains.”
“Men’s physiques are different. Their pelvic structure makes it unnatural to close the legs. It’s easy for women to close their legs because of their pelvic structure.”
“That’s not true. Taking away other people’s space can’t be justified by a supposed difference in pelvic structure.”
In amongst the arguments and heated discussions, some people sought to find solutions to the problem, with one Twitter user posting this image of Japanese musician Gackt to show that it’s physically possible for men to sit without spreading their legs.
Other users had more constructive ideas. This Twitter user suggested rail companies create separate partitions for each seat, like these ones seen on the new Keio Liner.
This tweet, which suggests marking out coloured sections on the floors underneath seats, drew a lot of attention, with people commending the simple idea as a solution that could help keep people’s legs between the lines.
While these are definitely viable options for rail companies to consider in their fight against manspreading and inconsiderate use of seats on trains, at the moment it remains unlikely that any big changes like these will be implemented in the immediate future.
Still, inappropriate seating etiquette does rank at number three on this survey of the top ten most inconsiderate train behaviours, so if things keep going this way, it’s possible that rail companies will have to look into different preventative measures. But for now, we’ll have to make do with humorous manners posters.
Source: My Game News Flash
Featured image: Twitter/@N7a_T2u