Why do men HAVE to ‘manspread’?

It is a thing for sure. Although anatomical differences come into play so that's a bit of a mitigating factor. Nevertheless, there do seem to be men who lack spacial awareness as to how much room they're occupying.

Yes, ir they were monkeys, they'd probably have blue "bits".

Perhaps they just want to display their ‘manhood’ and show what big boys they are ?

It is annoying. I agree

I followed the link and read the article. I also read some of the comments. I particularly liked the one that complained about a woman telling a man how to sit. The man who wrote this comment clearly failed to take on board the fact that the article specifically mentioned manspreading on the subway as being rude. Presumably because it is not only aesthetically offensive it is also very uncomfortable to share a seat with a spreader.

I think its just an inbuilt behaviour, a man thing.

Witzend

As someone on MN once suggested in this context, ‘Oh, dear - if you really need SO much space for your balls, it’s high time you sought a diagnosis.’ 😂

As for the rucksack, in such cases I always say, ‘Could you move your bag, please?’
I do get the odd eye roll, but nobody’s ever refused.

I wouldn't have the courage to say the first 😉. On the subject of bag moving I did some years ago, when I was in a fairly foul mood anyway, say to a man who ignored me hovering by the seat his bag was occupying "would you like to move your bag or shall I just sit on it?" he moved it pretty sharply 😁 Not sure I'd have the courage to say it nowadays, but I don't tend to use public transport at peak times anyway.

Interesting article:

Extract:

Manspreading is something that we don’t see cross-culturally (here’s a scholarly article from the 1950s that shows that even back then, knees-together sitting occurred at different frequencies in different cultures). Only a certain type of dudebro or man-man manspreads. Schuler even admitted that after being told that his natural sitting position is knees apart, he still avoids manspreading on the subway because he knows it’s rude.

This means that manspreading is a cultural phenomenon because regardless of one’s anatomy, one can choose not to practice it.

The article then goes on to discuss anatomy.

medium.com/@cvans/the-false-biology-of-manspreading-f789abd709f5

Some do, some don't. Does it have anything to do with upbringing? Or, is it down to character? Would be an interesting study.

I guess it’s more comfortable than keeping it all pushed together ( depending on the size of course)
But yes boys and men do like to naturally dominate, well most of them anyway I suppose on the whole they have louder more dominant personalities

I once went on a date where the guy sat with his legs spread the whole time!

Needless to say there wasn't a second one...

Men and boys seem to need to take up more space generally.

My friend is a retired primary school teacher and she told me that the boys always seemed more dominant and demanding in the classroom. At break-time the playground the boys would be rushing around yelling and taking up most of the space in the middle while the girls would be skipping, playing or chatting quietly at the edges. It seems this carries on into manhood.

I quite like it on days I'm using my stick. I plant it in such a way that they can't spread in my direction!

I think it is just down to pig ignorance.

Respect, common decency and manners have been lost along the way.
I know that my parents and grandparents would set about 50% of the men around now

As someone on MN once suggested in this context, ‘Oh, dear - if you really need SO much space for your balls, it’s high time you sought a diagnosis.’ 😂

As for the rucksack, in such cases I always say, ‘Could you move your bag, please?’
I do get the odd eye roll, but nobody’s ever refused.

I think they think it makes them look ‘manly’.

Why?