Madrid's anti-manspreading campaign sparks renewed debate on London transport

One of its presenters interviewed women on the London tube to find out how they felt when he sat legs akimbo and encroaching on their seat, and was unanimously met with the response that they found it 'intimidating', 'uncomfortable' and 'an invasion of personal space'.

But it turns out London transport users have been calling for a 'manspreading' ban for nearly three years – ever since New York started posting signs on its 'subway' reading: “Dude, stop the spread, please. It's a space issue.”

As well as women complaining, a few men took to Twitter to admit they had never noticed they were doing this before and promised to stay mindful of it in future.

“I'm guilty of this...but next time, I'll know better,” one said at the time.

Canada has been debating the issue for several years, but a simple ban would not solve it – self-titled 'equity feminist' Cathy Young says the manspreading complaints were a form of 'pseudo-feminism', or criticising how men behave 'however trivial', and compared the practice with 'she-bagging', or women taking up too much space on public transport with their handbags and shopping bags.

And the men's rights group, Canadian Association For Equality (CAFE), argues that men 'have to sit with their legs apart' for anatomical reasons: it is 'physically painful', or at least uncomfortable, to keep their knees together.

CAFE even said anti-manspreading campaigns were akin to witch-hunts on women breast-feeding on public transport..

Critics of CAFE's view include an Independent reporter who said: “There's a difference between sitting with your legs together and spreading them at an obtuse, 120º angle – some of the men on the Tumblr blog...Men taking up too much space on trains look positively uncomfortable [with their legs that far apart], like they're doing a sit-down plié or a yoga position.”

The same reporter – Barbara Speed - in response to the 'she-bagging' counter-attack, pointed out that if someone asked a woman on a train to move her handbag, she would, and it is unlikely she would take up part of a seat already occupied with her bags.

Back in Madrid, the first city in Europe to seriously consider a ban or at least a public campaign against manspreading, has started off by putting up stickers on buses, trains and the metro showing a stick figure of a man with his legs wide apart and a red cross through it, together with the words: “Respect other people's space.”

The move came from Madrid city council after a series of campaigns from various fronts: the feminist organisation Mujeres en Lucha ('Women in Battle') opened a petition on Change.org and netted enough signatures – defined as over 200,000 – for it to be presented to authorities for consideration.

They handed the petition in to mayoress Manuela Carmena and to regional president Cristina Cifuentes.

Politicians were already on the case by then – the pro-Catalunya independence party CUP, which is present in all regions, launched a campaign against manspreading in April, and Podemos has logged what is known as a Non-Legislatory Proposal (PNL), or a pre-law motion in Madrid regional Parliament, acknowledging Mujeres en Lucha's Twitter campaign #MadridSinManspreading.

Whether the crusade goes a step further and becomes an offence subject to a fine, or whether it remains merely a matter of public etiquette, is unclear at the moment and will probably depend upon how far men respect it.

But in the meantime, the word 'manspreading', added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013, has now unofficially entered the Spanish language – the Spanish equivalent used until recently was despatarre masculino, although the mainstream media is now tending to adopt the anglicised version.

First photograph: Madrid city council

Second photograph: Change.org