Man Gets Humiliated On Plane For Manspreading, Turns to Reddit to See if He's the Real Victim - Sparks Discussion About How Often Women's Personal Space Gets Violated By Men

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  • 01
    Smile - Posted by u/Dr_Chekhov 22 hours ago AITA for manspreading on a plane?
  • 02
    Font - A few months ago I (26M) was alone on a long flight, -6 hours. I had a middle seat between a young woman (20sF) in the window seat, and a woman (30sF) on the aisle. I'm tall and am never comfortable on planes. My knees always dig into the seat in front and it can be quite painful. I usually try to take a walk around the airport before flights to stretch my legs, but neglected to this time. It was Spirit airlines so even less legroom than usual.
  • 03
    Font - About half an hour after takeoff I found my left knee inching to the side for the sweet relief of open space -- specifically, the no-man's- land in between seats, level with the shared armrest. But I wasn't paying attention to my knee the entire time. I'll concede it's possible that at some point I was occupying space that rightfully belonged to my window seat neighbor. All was well for ~2 hours.
  • 04
    Font - At this point, the woman in the window seat called over the flight attendant. She asked her something like "Could you tell him to keep his ****ing leg in his own ****ing seat." With horror, I understood she was talking about me. I instantly retracted my leg in deep shame. She
  • 05
    Font - added something about "his enormous dick" -- my understanding was that it was meant to be a snide reference to the idea that spreading your legs is about male genital comfort. But she wasn't speaking very clearly, and the flight attendant (50sF) didn't seem to understand her. The FA asked her some sort of clarifying question but she didn't answer and eventually the attendant went away.
  • 06
    Font - I had been shocked into silence, but when the FA left I frantically began to apologize. But she refused to speak to me. She acted like she didn't hear me. Instead she started furiously texting on her phone (yeah, texting during a flight. I thought it was weird too). Aisle Seat woman said she had some extra space on her side I could use, but then promptly went to sleep. Oh well.
  • 07
    Font - I tried again to apologize to Window Seat woman, but again she ignored me. I went from embarrassed to confused. I kept replaying it in my head, wondering why she didn't simply ask me to move my knee instead of calling over the attendant.
  • 08
    Font - I started sneaking peeks at her phone. My defense is that I was baffled by her behavior and wanted answers. I'll admit that I was being judgmental, too. Here's why: she spent the last 3 hours of the flight watching tiktoks about shaming obese people and texting someone she called papi. I didn't see all of it but a significant portion was definitely about me; she wrote "Men really do be too much sometimes" with a laughing emoji.
  • 09
    Font - She ignored me the whole rest of the flight and I ignored her. I got a good but painful workout of whatever muscle it is that keeps your knees together.
  • 10
    Font - Ryuloulou 21 hr. ago · S & 4 More Certified Proctologist [27] YTA 1: this is a known, reoccurring issue. You KNOW you will feel better with more leg space. Stop pinching Pennie's and pay for an aisle seat or an exit seat. There are options !
  • 11
    Font - 2. By wanting the woman to tell you if she is bothered by your invasion of her space, you make it her responsability instead of just not doing it. women can feel too vulnerable to confront a tall guy (your own admission) by themselves especially when they are stuck at the window seat and cannot exit if the guy gets angry. she didn't call the attendant to tell you to move, she called her to have an authority figure to help her make a point.
  • 12
    Font - 3. And then there is the snooping. Seriously dude ?! You thought what? Ho, this woman has already found me intrusive before, let's double down?
  • 13
    Font - colourscaptivating · 19 hr. ago I'm a small woman and men on plane flights CONSTANTLY shove their knees into my personal space, even when they have enough room to sit with their legs together. It's exhausting having to try to figure out if I should bother asking them to move, especially because I dislike conflict and sometimes they either get mad (and then I'm stuck sitting next to an angry person much larger than me for hours), or else fake an apology and then go back to doing it ten min
  • 14
    Font - If you physically can't fit into your space, I'm not going to get mad (yeah, maybe you should book a larger seat, but I don't know what your financial situation is or why you need to fly), but if you are able to fit, even if it's less comfortable, keep your goddamn body parts to yourself and don't put me in the position of having to ask for basic personal space.
  • 15
    Font - Failpo 18 hr. ago As a small woman, if they aren't taking up your space in general, they think it's appropriate to use you as furniture for their comfort. The amount of times a STRANGE man has come up and rested his arm on my head.....
  • 16
    Font - GlamourCat NYC 18 hr. ago Partassipant [3] I had one asshole rest his newspaper on my head on a crowded NYC subway train (1990s). Imagine his shock when I grabbed the paper and threw it off the train at the next stop.
  • 17
    Font - veganmilanese · 16 hr. ago I used to rely on public transport for commuting during rush hour. Many times it there was standing room only. Once while standing someone had the nerve to rest their book on top of my head. It's dehumanizing and frustrating.
  • 18
    Font - JSD12345 18 hr. ago I'm also a fairly small women and I've started invading their space back because asking them to stop has never worked. If you think you can take up 1/3-1/2 of my designated space then that means I can do the same to you. The shared arm rest? it's mine now. You need to spread your leg all the way into my space? well now so do I and our legs will be interlocked the whole flight.
  • 19
    Font - lotheva 18 hr. ago It's even worse as a large woman. I had two men on either side of me and literally had my legs one on top of the other, my elbows on my chest for a 2 hour flight. I have anxiety, so no way I was talking. Even then, they kept touching me. (I fit 100% fine normally, they were encroaching more than 4 inches)
  • 20
    Font - TheBizarb 18 hr. ago I would make sure to make his flight even less comfortable, but that's just how I am. No way am I making a-hole men get away with this crap anymore.

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