Does Manspreading Only Attribute to Bad Manners or Several Factors?
Shingo Takatera
California State University, Northridge A personal space belongs to a person; therefore, we feel uncomfortable when strangers invade our personal space or social distance. The behavior of invading other’s space becomes an issue, especially in a public transportation. The behavior is a manspreading that is often practiced by male. According to Oxford Living Dictionaries, manspreading refers to “the practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport, adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat or seats” (year). Since manspreading can invade other people’s personal space especially
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Men who manspread in a limited space are criticized for invading other’s space and their rudeness. If women manspread, do they get the same criticism as men, or would women get other content of criticism such as gender performance? In the video “Women Try to Manspread for a Week”, produced by BuzzFeed, the three women share their experience of manspreading for a week. On the commentary, the woman with a hat and glasses shares her memory of her childhood about closing her legs. She has the vivid memories that her mother often reminded her to close her legs. Her mother’s reminder of closing legs suggests the education of the gender performance, since even though I am disciplined to be polite, I as a man have never been reminded to close my legs from my parents. On the first day of the experiment, the woman with the hat and glasses feels she is like a monster and wonders how men can manspread without being conscious. Since this experiment is conducted with a will of manspreading and caring other’s spaces, she might be more self-conscious, but if men are not conscious of manspreading as she says, what factors make her more conscious of manspreading as a woman? One of the factor of being conscious of manspreading might be attributed to the education she had from her mother during her girlhood because the discipline of “closing legs” conflicts with the behavior of manspreading. On the day three of manspreading, the same woman tells that she is not enjoying the experiment and feels uncomfortable manspreading because she takes extra spaces in a train. None of the three women did not get criticism for being masculine during the experiment, yet the “closing legs” discipline suggests that manspreading opposes the gender performance of
Candance West and Don Zimmerman are the authors of “Doing Gneder” that was published in ‘Gender Society; on 1987. The point that the authors were trying to get accros in “Doing Gender” was that people fullfille their ‘gender’ just like any other rutine that people do in their life. It is hard for people to avoind ‘doing gneder’ becae it is almost a never ending activity. We do gender each and everyday to where we are onlivion to it. We step into our gender unknowingly while we are interacting and socializing. Children learn frm a ver yound age how to do gender. From a young age girls care about things like lip glass. The little girls associate wearing lip gloss with looking prettier. We make sure that they know how to be a ‘boy’ and ‘girl’. Gender is not at all who we are and it is not our identity. Gender is a mask that we put on when we face others. We don’t act in public like we act when we are alone. Just as stated in “Doing Gender” by Creative Sociololy, “It Is a product of social interaction… production…..A social construction. “ We do gender to avoind being judged by others. A man takin on the characteristics of a femal and vise versa is risky. As stated in the article “Doing Gender”, “…behave outside the boundres…risk…judge harshly…” Society treats the individuals who break the statues quote unfairly becase they are challenginf the system. There is a raise of unequal distribution of power by every person who participates in doing gender. Whne you compare men and
There is something subtle about attitudes toward women, something that many people act in accordance to but are only subconsciously aware of. It is the constant judgment that women face, and it is also something Deborah Tannen noticed while sitting in an ordinary meeting one day. During that meeting, she found herself noticing only the females of the room, not the men. Tannen then realized that it was because “The men’s styles were unmarked” (Tannen 389). While there are standard hairstyles and clothing for men, there are none for women. Everything that a woman wears is a reflection of who she is. In her piece titled There Is No Unmarked Woman, she writes about her experience and concludes that women cannot escape judgment no matter what they do.
This distance is more commonly associated with elevator rides and is considered an acceptable distance. Remember the unwritten elevator rule; allow others around you their personal space. The lunch group that day complied. When we boarded the elevator, we acted according to how we were expected. We pressed the appropriate button for our floor and moved to the back wall to allow others to board. The other rider, the one who stood in Ross’s intimate space, showed no regard for space or the negative effect he was causing. It seemed that since Ross was standing behind him, the man did not feel any discomfort with the distance between them.
due to the absurd superiority of men’s social position, if she were a man: she repeatedly makes
Kinzel and Solnit both aimed their articles at the male population to point out an issue that is usually swept under the rug. A man being the intended audience strongly affects the argument because they are the ones that the authors have a problem with. They want to get their point across but need to do it in a way that does not anger the reader. Kinzel shows her great understanding of the issue by talking about how women are capable of this type of attitude. She even describes her behavior in situations like this “I’ve always called it “lecture mode,” and I even have this habit where I take a deep, semi-dramatic breath before it shifts on, and I begin, on the exhale, with, “Well--” I always begin with “Well--” and I always conclude with, “Does that make sense?” (Kinzel). By acknowledging this male readers are more receptive to her message and more likely to be open minded.
Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and
Being raised female – and more specifically a female in the mid-west, where being polite and unobtrusive are paramount features of social etiquette – I was taught to never take up too much space physically, vocally, or emotionally. In my younger years I was often chided for things like being too loud or being un-composed, i.e., not keeping my legs crossed. While, over the years I have shaken off certain oppressive doctrines about femininity, I have never managed to let myself take up more space than the bare minimum required, a physical indicator of submission in Western culture that equates size with dominance. Thus, on June 18, 2015 I violated my gender role by enacting stereotypical male body language throughout the day. Internet articles such as “4 Alpha Male Body Hacks That Instantly Boost Your Attractiveness” and “Alpha Male Body Language” explained to me how one should stand, sit, walk, and stare to be an “alpha male.” This gender role violation experiment was both an emotional and physical challenge for me throughout the day.
The gender based expectations are taught and the sometimes subtle, often overt lessons begin at a very young age. It starts with the color of the blanket a baby is wrapped up in, the toys bought for them to play with, and extends to the pretend play they engage in. So from the earliest ages of social awareness, society reinforces the ideals of masculine and feminine throughout life. Consequently, it is perfectly acceptable for a girl to put on a purple tutu and twirl about granting wishes to her stuffed animals, while it would be discouraged for a boy. He should be outside in the sandbox setting up his toy soldiers in a mock battle. In spite of the entrenched idea of gender, some mothers and fathers aspire to a more gender-neutral parenting style, that doesn’t restrict their child to specific societal ideals. However, the pressure to conform to the gender binary is ever-present and difficult to deconstruct. The boy that cries when he gets hit by a baseball is called a “sissy” and told to “man up” by his coach. The girl who tells her high school counselor, she wants to take auto
Our gender has an effect on every aspect of our lives, varying from how we view ourselves and other people to how we interact in social and civic life. It also impacts the way we set our goals in opportunity areas such as education, work, and recreation. Gender socialization starts at birth then manifests through family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Gender norms are automatically placed on us, where women should learn how to be nurturing, sensitive, emotional, passive, and always hold a man’s position higher than hers. On the other hand men should be overly confident, aggressive, dominant, and view women beneath them. This paper uses various readings to show how these gender norms are supported and challenged in today’s society.
Sociologists reject the idea that behavioural differences between men and women are biologically determined. Outline the key grounds for this rejection and discuss what this means for a sociological understanding of gender.
This is report is about the reactions of personal space when invaded. A total of 20 strangers were tested to see how different genders and ages react to strangers coming to close. The experiment took place in Woden plaza where a student stood behind a subject and watched there reaction from the closeness. It was found that 60% of the subjects did react to the close proximities. This reports also shows different theories to why people act the way they do when they feel violated.
For a long time, men and women have been dealing with the controversy of gender roles. In modern day, the battle for gender equality has been more known. In the story “Guys Suffer from Oppressive Gender Roles Too”, the author Julie Zeilinger explains how males are held to a more macho standard, but do have prevalent emotions. If we were to let go of these rigid rules about what is manly, there would be no standard for any gender. If that was reality, men shouldn’t have to feel humiliated about staying home, and if their companion makes more money than they do. Zeilinger talks about how males detach themselves from some emotions, and live a “life nub to a true range of human emotion” so they can meet this masculinity standard. However if males
These behaviors can have very detrimental effects after post-secondary life. When it becomes more and more acceptable for men to continuously make physical and sexual advances on women, it normalizes the idea of male dominance. Furthermore, in Ronen’s research regarding college dance floor conduct, men were never reprimanded for their behavior. The women who were observed dancing politely declined the invitation from the men they did not want to dance with. Men were seen having limited success with some approaches, yet continued to do so. Doing gender in this way leads to a rationalization by man of potentially violent
On October 6, 2017, I woke up and for an hour I thought about what social norm I was going to challenge for this assignment. After giving it careful thought, I decided I was going to challenge the gender roles, identity, and stereotypes that society has. “Gender roles are sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female.” (Conley, 2017, p.133) I was going to challenge this with my clothing. So, I decided I was going to dress up like a man for the whole day. Gender roles are cultural and personal. They determine and control how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. In the United States, these gender roles are
"You're such a girl!" is something we hear quite often. But we don't exactly analyze its importance. Every man or women act and behave differently, and that is because of gender roles, "instructions for how to behave and appear as a woman or man (Wade and Ferree 2015; 61). We all "do gender", the ways in which we actively obey and break the gender rules of our society." (Wade and Ferree 2015; 61). We don't always obey these rules and regulation, we're all humans, and we all make mistakes, but it's other peoples reaction what's most interesting about breaking them. Once we break these rules, there is something known as gender policing, "responses to the violations of gender rules aimed at promoting conformity. (Wade and Ferree 2015; 71).