‘Manspreading – the practice whereby a man, especially one travelling on public transport adopts a sitting position with legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat.’ (Urban Dictionary,2015)

Subconsciously, or not, males have had superiority when it comes to moving through life. It is only in recent years that certain issues have come to light. The modern world is very much built around a man’s reality, for example, the temperature of the air conditioning in offices currently throughout the globe are set to that of a comfortable temperature for a male, no consideration for the comfortable female body core temperature. This not only has physical effects but mental ones too, such as, higher susceptibility to anxiety and depression (R.Sanghani,2015). Interior design is something of an issue when it comes to sexism, when taking a look back in time, interior design was seen as a domestic hobby mostly participated in by females. Whereas, over the years it grew in popularity and when jobs became available it became a profession.(M.Zarandian,2015)

The ‘Pussy Purse’ came about as a reaction to ‘manspreading’ with an aim to shed light on the issue and bring awareness to personal space in and around public transport. The designer Rachel Feinburg came up with the concept when taking public transport, she noticed that when she sat down she would subconsciously cross her legs and place her bag on her knees. when she looked around she noticed a pattern. (E.Wallwork,2015)

 

Rowbotham, S. (1973) Woman’s consciousness, Man’s world. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Sanghani, R. (2015) The Telegraph. Available at:https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11760417/Air-conditioning-in-your-office-is-sexist.-True-story.html (Accessed: 16/09/18).

Urban Dictionary (2015) Manspreading. Available at:https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=manspreading (Accessed: 16/09/18).

Wallwork, E (2015) Carry a Pussy Purse to combat manspreading. Available at:https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/07/17/pussy-purse-manspreading-damnsel-rachel-feinberg_n_7816242.html? (Accessed:16/09/18)

Zarandian, M. (2015) FEMINISM AND INTERIOR DESIGN IN THE 1960’S. Available at:http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1160&context=archthesis (Accessed: 16/09/18).