Maybe you’ve never heard the term before, but I guarantee you’ve seen it. You may have even done it yourself. Manspreading is a new word, having been added to the Oxford Dictionary only last week. It’s what happens when a guy sits with splayed legs or stretched arms (occasionally all four limbs are involved) in a crowded area like an airport terminal or a passenger train, effectively hogging space that could accommodate three or four people. It’s a sort of passive-resistant misogyny, whether deliberate or unconscious. It’s the first word that came to mind when I read about the 17-year-old transgender student in Missouri who has “identified as a female” since age 13. The school tried to accommodate his needs with a gender-neutral restroom, but he insists on using the girls’ bathrooms and dressing rooms. It seems to me that he could have found no more effective way of proving to the world just how male he really is.
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