AITA: "Manspreading" plane passenger gets roasted by readers for in-flight behavior

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Apr 4, 2023 6:00 PM EDT

I feel like this is one of those AITA posts where the user probably knows what the judgment will be before they even ask. Still, whether or not they were wrong was decided when they chose to use a term like "manspreading" in the title. After that, the conversation was only going to go in one direction.

I'm going to go ahead here and say that I don't agree with Reddit's decision. Yes, dear reader, that might surprise you, but I don't think this Original Poster was in the wrong... at least not solely. This statement will probably surprise you less when I go on to clarify that I, myself, am a tall man, and when I get stuck in the middle seat, there's nowhere for my legs to go but out.

Let's get this cleared up, too: You don't always have control over what seat you get assigned; the fact that every Redditor seems to think otherwise is strange, with most of them using this as their primary argument. It leads you to think that these commenters have never had to make a last-minute flight when a loved one was sick or haven't ever been booked into last-minute travel for work.

When I end up in the cursed middle seat, I'm either jamming my knees into the back of the person in front of me, which is annoying for the person in front of me and incredibly painful; or my knees (and thus legs) have to be spread outwards into "contested" territory.

Yeah, it's not an ideal experience for anyone, and it may not be completely fair. But what's a tall person supposed to do? Cut their legs off the knees?

Life isn't always going to be fair; if it were, they'd be issuing height evening stilts to make everyone the same height at every concert so that everyone has the same view, and every race would be moderated so that every contestant crossed the finish line at exactly the same time.

I know this argument is sort of a red-herring fallacy, but the point still stands. To me, how the people reacted in this story is the most important ethical determination. The other passenger came way out of left field and went wild without first trying to communicate the effect his actions were having on her; certainly, if she had asked, he would have moved. If he still didn't move, then he would be in the wrong.

Anyways, those are my thoughts, what are yours?

For more AITA, check out this guy who charged a good samaritan who broke the window on his truck canopy for a new one, even though it was already broken.

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AITA: "Manspreading" plane passenger gets roasted by readers for in-flight behavior

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