By GABRIELA SANTOS<\/p>\n
Madrid, the Spanish capital, will begin to place signs on city buses that will prohibit \u201cmanspreading.\u201d Much like those already in place that do not allow smoking or littering.<\/p>\n
Manspreading is the practice whereby a man, especially one traveling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seats, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary<\/em>.<\/p>\n Cities around the world, like New York and Philadelphia, have been adopting these kind of campaigns to dissuade riders from practicing the careless behavior.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mission of this new signage is to remember the need to maintain civic behavior and to respect the space of everyone on board the bus,\u201d Spanish bus operator EMT said in a statement this week.<\/p>\n The decision came after a Spanish feminist group called \u201cMujeres en Lucha\u201d created a petition that garnered more than 600 signatures on the popular site Change.org. They also created the hashtag #<\/a>MadridSinManspreading<\/a> (MadridWithoutManspreading) to help spread the message.<\/p>\n Manspreading \u201cis not something that occurs sporadically, but if you look, you will realize that it is a very common practice,\u201d the petition read. \u201cIt is not difficult to see women with their legs closed and very uncomfortable because there is a man next to her who is invading her space with his legs.\u201d<\/p>\n Transport officials in Madrid also plan to use this campaign for the city\u2019s metro system, according to BBC News.<\/p>\n The term \u201cmanspreading\u201d has become a worldwide phenomenon and has led to many men being called out via social media. So much so that the Oxford Dictionary<\/em> entered it into their online dictionary in 2015.<\/p>\n The practice has become so commonplace that most perpetrators don\u2019t even realize that they\u2019re doing it- and if they do they certainly don\u2019t care. Hence, the new campaign to put a stop to it.<\/p>\n News media outlets have maintained a pretty good level on non-bias reporting on this topic, which surprisingly has been reported on by most top sites.<\/p>\n This is just one of those issues that is non-partisan, because after all, how can you be mad at people just trying to make the world more polite?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By GABRIELA SANTOS Madrid, the Spanish capital, will begin to place signs on city buses that will prohibit \u201cmanspreading.\u201d Much like those already in place that do not allow smoking or littering. Manspreading is the practice whereby a man, especially … Continue reading