What Happens When Someone Confronts Splay-Legged Male Subway Riders

Dudes who ride the subways with their legs spread so wide you start to wonder whether perhaps they are shelling ghost peas into an invisible 55-gallon drum are an annoying fixture on public transit. What happens when someone calls them on their space-taking?

The team at Gothamist grabbed a camera and approached several men who were looking a little territorially aggressive, despite the MTA’s new reminders to be considerate of others. In a turn of events actually quite reassuring vis a vis the state of humanity, most of the fellas were open to hearing they maybe ought to reel it in. Said Gothamist: “Many manspreaders were promptly contrite; others explained that they were happy to rein it in if anyone wanted to sit down. No one screamed or kicked or spread wider in defiance.” And then they asked each man to measure the span of his spread.