academic job market / autonomy / empowering women / Uncategorized

These men are NOT saving room for cats!

annejjacobson11 Comments

Irritated by the seemingly inexplicable behavior of men who spread their legs wide whem sitting in public spaces? Feeling forced to collapse in on yourself?

Here we’ve enjoyed laughing at the phenomenon and the idea that they are making room for cats.


However, what may be going on is a quite serious and quite deep reinforcement of differences valued by patriarchy.

We’ve known for some time that one’s facial expressions can affect one’s mood, but according to the NY Times, Amy Cuddy (assoc prof, Harvard Business School), has shown one’s stance and how much space one occupies affects how powerful one feels and conveys. People spread out on the subway wil feel more powerful than thoses crunched up. Before an interview you will be more confident if you’ve been practiccing wonderwoman poses

Lately, she has been examining the differences between subjects who sleep sprawled out versus those who curl up. Early results show that people who arise with arms and legs extended feel brighter and more optimistic than the 40 percent who start the day in a fetal position.

But there’s hope. “If you wake in fetal pose,” Ms. Cuddy said, “open yourself up like the guy on the subway taking up too much space, and soon enough you’ll feel like a happy warrior.”

11 thoughts on “These men are NOT saving room for cats!”

  2. This is dumb. The guys are being rude, but it’s not some horrible moral flaw. It’s because they have testicles. Sitting with legs tightly crossed is uncomfortable for people with testes. Yes, you should keep your legs closed when on a crowded train, but it’s not a moral failing, it’s just a matter of them following their natural posture. If the person next to you is taking up too much space, just shove his leg with yours until he scoots in. No need to photoshop cats.

  6. “If the person next to you is taking up too much space, just shove his leg with yours until he scoots in.”

    Encouraging women to risk incurring an angry and possibly violent reaction, by physically shoving a man who is asserting his dominance in a public place … this does not sound like an ideal solution.

  8. I think it’s fabulous that after years of feminists making fun of these guys, it turns out everyone should be emulating them!
    Irony is lovely.

  9. Anyway, why not take the blog to be in good fun? Maybe half those images, at best, even fit the problem the blogs are trying to identify (men taking up undue amounts of space). There’s no real need to defend the honor of the guys taking a wider stance. Especially not be appealing to plain silliness like testicular comfort.

  11. O dear. I do respect concerns getting expressed. But this blog is really not the place for innundoes about one’s own or others’ fairly intimate problems.

    Let me reccommend that those with such problems avoid planes, except for business class or above.

    So comments are closed.

Comments are closed.