r/asktransgender • u/FX114 • 2d ago

Problems with "man"-spreading

I find it hard to keep my legs closed, and it sometimes makes me dysphoric. I don't know if it's something about my hips, my thick thighs, or the fact that I don't tuck, but it's genuinely uncomfortable to not sit with my legs in their natural, splayed position, and I know it doesn't look feminine at all. Plus, it's actually inconvenient in certain situations.

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u/TheVelcroStrap 2d ago

I notice many cis women do not clasp their legs fully together, some keep them wide, I try to not jut me knees out too much, but don’t often make my knees touch, I can’t physically do that.

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u/LinkleLinkle She/Her/Hers 1d ago

Yeah, I've known plenty of cis women that sit with their legs spread wide out. Some clearly out of habit while others just don't have the thighs to be keeping them close together.

Also, I feel like 'manspreading' is one of those things that gets used so broadly that we forget the original intent behind the coining of the term. Which it's not meant to state that ONLY men spread their legs wide while sitting and ONLY women sit keeping their legs as closely together. The term was coined to point out cis men who grew up believing they're the center of the universe by virtue of being AMAB to the point where they either spread their legs out of a refusal to acknowledge other people exist who may need that space or explicitly do it as a power move to assert dominance.