Misdemeanor of Manspreading

 

George Orwell theorized in his book, 1984, that limiting language can limit thinking.  Thankfully, we are STILL in a world where dictionary is expanding rather than contracting to concoct the Newspeak the author underscored in the book.

Today, I welcome the birth of the word- manspreading; the word has been officially added to the online dictionary (I had to right click on manspreading and hit Ignore). If the corollary to Orwell’s theory holds, then including the word Manspreading in the dictionary will draw more attention to act and hopefully lead to an eventual culling of this repulsive practice. And at that point, the dictionary entry can be revised to read “an archaic practice where a man sits…”

Question: What is Manspreading?                                                                                                        

Answer: When a man sits with his legs wide apart on public transport encroaching on other seats

 

A few would disagree that manspreading is poor etiquette, and as we evolve to a world with rampant poor manners, we are left with no choice but to impose corrective action. Without treading into gender history and relations, I deem manspreading as a repulsive act, akin to picking one’s nose in public, maybe a shade a better than that, but nevertheless it is bad etiquette. I applaud as we move forward to create a better world where sadly, we still don’t arrest people for poor manners, but at least we are coining words to call them out.