A public debate has erupted in the UK about whether men can ride public transport with their legs wide apart?
A public debate has erupted in the UK about whether men can ride public transport with their legs wide apart. The scale of the problem is such that former Home Secretary Jackie Smith has already taken part in its discussion, and the Scottish actor, the star of the series "Game of Thrones" Richard Madden, has become the main target of popular anger. He gave rise to a wide controversy: a photo appeared in a thematic blog in which he was captured riding on the London Underground in a characteristic pose. The Daily Mail published a note about this, after which other publications, in particular The Observer, joined the controversy.
The most radical commentators have suggested castrating Madden, but correspondent Barbara Ellen is not close to this approach. She begins her thoughtful analysis by criticizing the most common arguments of opponents, for example, the thesis that physiology forces men to sit in public transport "in alpha position with legs apart and exposed crotch". As if they do it not because of the structural features of the male pelvis, or because of the "danger of overheating of the sperm," or because "nature is generous with them beyond measure." There is a "bit of delusional bragging" in these explanations, the author suspects.
“The point here is not physiology,” she believes. “Something is not visible to women with large breasts who would flop them on the seats or on the shoulders of those around them with the words:“Sorry, my economy is falling out, I’ll have to press you.” women with legs apart, exclaiming: "About cystitis and thrush, perhaps, have not heard? The baby needs to be cooled."
This behavior of Madden and others like him, from the point of view of Ellen, is based on "the belief that the place they occupy is due to them." “The matter is not always limited to this,” the correspondent continues. “Men show unwanted signs of attention to women, comment on their appearance, get annoyed when they are not reciprocated, in extreme cases they persecute them, show aggression.”
"Undoubtedly, most men will sit differently in response to a request or demand," the author of the article is convinced, and yet: too much anxiety and responsibility … A woman's personal space, whether in public transport or elsewhere, is not some loose, semi-permeable, controversial concept, not something that can be appropriated, "the journalist concludes.
