A feminist designer has created a chair that could put an end to manspreading Laila Laurel’s ‘manspreading solution’ forces its male occupants to sit with their legs closed

A young British designer has unveiled a piece of furniture that she believes could be the solution to the scourge of manspreading.

The act of man-spreading occurs when a man sits with his legs spread wide apart in a way that encroaches on the space of others, with women typically bearing the brunt of this practice. Instances of manspreading can frequently be observed on public transport where culprits can be seen occupying two, or even three, spaces as a result of their wide-legged stance.

Manspreading solution

Now feminist designer Laila Laurel has unveiled an anti-manspreading chair that forces its male occupants to sit with their legs closed.

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Ms Laurel, 23, a University of Brighton graduate, created the “solution for man-spreading” as part of her final-year project after reading numerous accounts about the phenomenon from women around the world on the Everyday Sexism Project website, which documents examples of sexism experienced on a day-to-day basis.

“It seems like a universal issue,” Ms Laurel said. “I don’t think it’s an act of conscious sexism [but] even sitting can be a political problem. Women are taught to take up less space in public.”

Legs apart

The designer also created a second seat, intended for women, which features a small piece of wood in the middle to encourage sitters to position themselves with their legs apart.

She said of the chairs: “I want my work to be interactive, fun and accessible while also [including] underlying messages about women’s experiences.”

Both chairs are on display at the 2019 New Designers exhibition, which showcases the work of 3,000 graduate designers. The exhibition opens on Wednesday and runs until 6 July at the Business Design Centre in north London.

Asked whether she would be open to offers from design companies seeking to manufacture her man-spreading deterrent commercially, Ms Laurel said: “That would be brilliant – I would absolutely sell it to them.”

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