manspread; manspreading; manspreader
to manspread – verbo transitivo e intransitivo
manspreading – sostantivo non numerabile
manspreader – sostantivo numerabile
Manspreading is rude, inappropriate and sometimes borders on sexual harassment.
Two men have been arrested for “manspreading” on the New York subway and the New York Times called it the “bane of many female subway riders”.
It seems to me that an awful lot of the images of men manspreading are actually just pictures of men sitting down.
Now the men who comfortably spread their legs on trains leaving the rest of us squeezed in our seats have a new name: “manspreaders”.
Forse ricorderete che qualche tempo fa su questo blog abbiamo parlato del neologismo mansplaining, ovvero l’arte tutta maschile di spiegare o di parlare di qualcosa con aria di sufficienza, perché il parlante presume che l’interlocutore ne sappia meno di lui (anche quando è vero il contrario!).
Un altro termine di conio recente, sulla falsariga di mansplaining, è manspreading, cioè quello che fanno tanti uomini quando, sui mezzi pubblici, siedono in modo scomposto o a gambe larghe, occupando tutto lo spazio disponibile. I colpevoli del mansplaining sono stati additati al pubblico ludibrio attraverso campagne lanciate sui social network; le donne, in particolare, risentono maggiormente di questo atteggiamento maschile che le mette a disagio e rappresenta un’invasione dello spazio personale (un uomo corpulento che siede a gambe divaricate accanto a te ti obbliga a stringerti nel tuo posto, a meno di volersi trovare a stretto contatto con i coscioni del manspreader in questione). Da quest’estate, il manspreading è considerato reato sulle reti di trasporti pubblici di New York e di Seattle. Manspreader avvisato, mezzo salvato…
Origini del termine
Manspreading è una fusione di man e spread. Il termine è affiorato intorno al 2008 ed è diventato via via popolare uso in seguito alle campagne sui social e a quelle dei trasporti pubblici. Oggi è ancor più diffuso perché inserito nella versione aggiornata dell’Oxford Dictionary. Ovviamente il fenomeno è molto più vecchio del termine usato per definirlo.
to manspread – intransitive or transitive verb
manspreading – uncountable noun
manspreader – countable noun
Manspreading is rude, inappropriate and sometimes borders on sexual harassment.
Two men have been arrested for “manspreading” on the New York subway and the New York Times called it the “bane of many female subway riders”.
It seems to me that an awful lot of the images of men manspreading are actually just pictures of men sitting down.
Now the men who comfortably spread their legs on trains leaving the rest of us squeezed in our seats have a new name: “manspreaders”.
You may remember that a few months ago this blog featured the neologism mansplaining, which is when a man explains something in an unnecessarily patronising way, because he assumes that he knows more about it than his hearer does, even if the opposite is the case.
Another recent coinage out of a neighbouring stable is manspreading, which is that thing some men do on public transport when they spread their legs wide or otherwise sprawl around in order to claim as much space as possible. Men who indulge in this behaviour have been publicly mocked by campaigns on social media, particularly by women who object to this encroachment into their space (a large man sitting next to you who is spreading his legs wide is almost inevitably forcing you to make yourself as small as possible, unless you want them to – ugh – press themselves against you). As of this summer, manspreading has been made an offence on the public transport networks of New York and Seattle. Manspreaders, you have been warned: keep your limbs to yourselves.
Origin
Manspreading is a blend of man and spread. The term started to be used in about 2008 and later caught on as a result of social media and public transport campaigns, becoming even more widely used after it was included in the most recent Oxford Dictionaries update. Of course, the phenomenon is much older that the word coined to describe it.
