Emily Litella of Saturday Night Live fame might have got this term wrong and called it something like “tanspread” or “manshead or even “sandwich spread;” I am waiting for this term to perhaps get into the Oxford English dictionary in a few years.
So what is it? Is it a noun, a verb? Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Bigger than a bread box? It actually could be all of these.
Here's a pic which shows, not tells, what it is, and it mostly takes place on the subway or other forms of public transportation, perhaps making it a more urban image:
Even the conservative National Review, despite its biases and nasty overgeneralizations about feminism, satirized (I would hope this is the case) some more extreme reactions to this posture. The article is actually more upset that “big government” would intervene even to the point of arresting someone(?!).
Yet, how dare a municipality put up a sign reminding people (in this case, mostly men) to just be more considerate of others on public transportation. And not just manspreading, but loud headphones and backpacks and other luggage and staring into phones and thus not watching where one is going while entering and exiting ...
The fact is, both sexes use specific body language to assert dominance; in the case of guys, such dominance usually involves taking up space, marking territory, as it were.
Manspread is one of those postures, as is the hands on hips or arms akimbo one. The latter also indicates readiness (sports players often stand this way waiting for action in a game) as well as dominance, and some studies have revealed that African-American women will also use this pose to show disagreement or even disgust.
Have I noticed this pose? Yes, of course, because who at gay men isn't looking for a seductive bulge? A gay man thus might interpret this pose differently, as a sexual come-on, however unconscious. But does a gay man interpret the accompanying power dynamic differently?
I could see this particularly pose as actually more submissive than dominant. The cock is open for play. And for those BDSM-inclined guys, open for cock and ball torture. In a pansexual BDSM scene, a dominatrix might want this pose so she could squeeze the guy's cock and balls. I even coined a term called “slavespread;” a sub bottom slave would sit this way, hands behind his back, cock and balls exposed.
I don't want to suggest that everyone should thus enjoy manspreading. There's a time and place to get horny, be it a dominant, submissive or mutual interaction. Move your legs. Let someone else sit next to you. Well, in the case of a gay man, that action might end up becoming an even more intimate proposition.
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