womanspreading

English

Etymology

From woman +‎ spreading, modelled on earlier manspreading.

Noun

womanspreading (uncountable)

  1. (informal, derogatory) The practice of women taking up extra space on public transport, for example by sitting with splayed legs or bringing large garments or bags.
    • 2015 January 9, Evening Standard‎:
      Our manspreading went off without incident […]. Womanspreading was a different prospect entirely, to the spreader, it felt rude and physically provocative. People opposite stared […].
    • 2015 November 5, Evening Standard‎:
      Germaine Greer’s natural pose is legs apart, womanspreading, in a skirt, giving people a full facial.
    • 2018, Rosie White, Television Comedy and Femininity: Queering Gender (Library of Gender and Popular Culture 9), London, New York, N.Y.: I.B. Tauris, page 16:
      Women on screen, as in middle-class society, tend to be physically continent, trained not to take up too much space. In contemporary parlance, we have manspreading but not womanspreading.
    • 2019, Manon Tremblay, “Introduction”, in Queering Representation: LGBTQ People and Electoral Politics in Canada, UBC Press, →ISBN, page 14:
      Gender rules determine how a woman should feel, look, and behave. She is expected to be sexually and emotionally attracted to men, must have long hair, and should cross her legs when sitting (no womanspreading on public transit!).
    • 2019 November 14, Daily News‎:
      Just want to thank Colin Fleming for his op-ed on womanspreading (“Can we talk about womanspreading?” Nov. 12).
    • 2019 September 13, Evening Standard‎:
      Big dresses speak of a refusal to blend in: a desire to stand up and be counted. In fact, you could call them the ultimate in womanspreading. Even in 2019, a supposed age of equality, women are still ‘expected’ to sit a certain way: […]
    • 2021, Lauren Elkin, No. 91/92: A Diary of a Year on the Bus, Semiotext(e), →ISBN, page 48:
      Oh whoops think I was just guilty of #womanspreading: when your bag verges onto the seat next to you subtly discouraging anyone from sitting down

See also
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