Traveling by plane is already uncomfortable because the seats are small and there isn’t much room for your legs.
But one woman’s trip was more than just a little bit awkward, as shown by the picture she posted online and shared with others.
In the picture, a man is sitting next to a woman, and his legs are taking up almost all of the space that would normally be used by the woman.
The woman posted the picture in the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit’s discussion thread. People who use the internet can come to this subreddit to vent their anger and ask others for their thoughts.
In the picture, you can see a woman’s legs squished between the seat in front of her and the leg of a man sitting next to her. The woman’s legs are pushed up against the seat in front of her.
The male passenger, on the other hand, seems to have a lot of room in front of him because his legs are spread out on both sides, taking up space from the people sitting next to him.
This was how a 4 hour flight went today. I am a 5’8” Female.
byu/EmilyKauai inmildlyinfuriating
“This was how a four-hour flight went today,” the woman wrote above the picture. “I am a 5’8’’ female.”
Other Reddit users talked about their own nightmare flights where there wasn’t much room to move around.
“Last flight I was on, I was seated next to someone who was 6’5. I’m 6’2 and was in the middle seat,” one user revealed. “NY to LA flight, we were STRUGGLING.”
“I’m 5’5” and even I get SO agitated and cramped up after an hour,” another user shared. “I usually end up crisscross applesauce if nobody is beside me or with my knees to my chest with my feet on my chair.”
“Honestly, I really feel for tall people on this one… I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that is.”
Other users gave tips and ideas on how to make long flights with limited space easier to handle.
“I’ll lock my knees straight forward into the seat in front of me. It makes the person in front of me unable to recline more than an inch or two, but it’s fair to my immediate neighbors,” one user wrote.
“I’m 5’2” and my husband is only 6’ and when we fly together I always let him take some of my space, but usually I either rest my legs literally on his lap or I’ll put my feet effectively under his legs and then he can rest his feet in my space,” another user commented.
“Plus, he sits window and I sit middle since I can’t sleep on planes so if I rest my legs on his lap my feet are still nowhere near anyone else.”
Some people thought that the man in the picture might have been “manspreading.”
There was a lot of agreement among users that flying is hard because passengers have to deal with tight spaces for the whole length of long flights.
Others, on the other hand, said that the man in the photo didn’t care at all about the personal space of his fellow travelers.
“This guy is actively spreading his legs with his phone positioned between them. Like; why?” one user wrote.
“The dude in that photo is a jerk. Unless you’re less than 48 hours out of a vasectomy, there’s no reason to be manspreading like that,” another user expressed.
“Dude is manspreading out of his lane. A hard bump to the right should clear the issue up,” another user commented.
“Manspreading” is the term for male passengers on public transportation who sit with their legs very far apart. This behavior gets in the way of other people’s personal space and makes traveling less pleasant for everyone.
After a 2013 discussion on the social media site Tumblr in which Internet users called out men who didn’t care about other people’s space by sitting with their legs apart on public transportation, the term became more popular and was used more often.
A study done by Hunter College in New York City found that men stretch their legs out while sitting five times more often than women do.
“What makes so many men think that they are entitled to two or more seats on the train?” one student expressed. “Maybe we need a massive revolt against the manspread.”
If there’s one thing that taking public transportation can teach you, it’s that you should keep your personal space, even though there’s not much room for it. This is out of respect for the other people who are riding with you.
