Passenger on Birmingham train displays some extreme “manspreading” skills

A passenger on a Midlands train took ‘manspreading’ to a whole new level recently after being captured deeply slouched into his seat while with legs spread far and wide across two additional seats.

The young man, immersed in his phone with earbuds plugged in, was photographed by a fellow passenger who found his extreme position and spread perplexing.

According to Oxford Dictionary, “Manspreading” – or man-sitting – is commonly known as “the practice whereby a man, especially one on public transportation, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seats.”

Posting the image to Facebook, the passenger who took the photo wrote, “I’m not usually one for taking pictures of random people’s gooches, but this manspreading is ridiculous! How is that even comfortable?!”

The image was snapped on a late-night Cross City line from Birmingham to Lichfield.

Speaking to I Am Birmingham, the passenger added:

“It’s disgusting and selfish! Also, putting your feet on seats is a contravention of a railway bylaw! ”

The responses to the Facebook post were equally as taken aback, with some seeing the funny side:

In August, London Midland launched new regulations reinforcing old bylaws, in response to complaints from train passengers about passengers putting their shoes and feet on seats.

According to the train operator, the crack down is in response to an abundance of complaints from other passengers and sees those caught reported, cautioned and potentially prosecuted in court.

Head of revenue protection and security at London Midland, Darren Hanley said: “The railway bylaws have always existed but for many years they have fallen out of focus by most train companies.

“There is a strong link between low levels of antisocial behaviour and ticketless travel. Our passengers have the right to travel and feel safe with us. By enforcing the railway bylaws we can stop problems before they escalate into something worse.”

London Midland staff have since been handing out cautions to any passengers putting their feet on seats, smoking e-cigarettes and riding bicycles on train station platforms.

According to the London Midland website:

“Nobody likes dirty or wet seats, please keep your feet on the floor. Please remember, this is an offence under the Railway Byelaws. We want to keep the train environments as clean and pleasant as possible. Would you want to sit on a dirty or damaged seat?

“Putting your feet up on the seats degrades the train seats condition for other customers. It can also impact on the comfort of others, not all customers feel confident to ask people take their feet off of seats in order to sit down themselves.”

“Manspreading”, on the other hand, isn’t illegal, but does still leave many divided on the issue; with some feeling the phrase itself is problematic, while others feel challenging the behaviour is a feminist issue.

Terminology aside, the practise of extreme spread amongst men (and not uniquely so) continues.

Here’s some finer examples:

And then there’s these:

Apparently, the fightback has begun:

Manspreaders of the world, take note.