Anyone who has traveled agrees that airplane seats are notoriously narrow and uncomfortable. Passengers packed together like sardines with barely enough room for themseleves. It's worse if you're sandwiched between two men with their legs apart, invading your place. This common issue has plagued public transportation for years: manspreading.
Manspreading is a term when a male sits in public with his legs wide open to the point where it violates other people's personal space. Although this has been around for years, the term became mainstream in 2014, according to CNN. Around this time, this trend became so common on public transportation where people vented their frustrations about it on social media and created the popular Tumblr blog, 'Men Taking Up Too Much Space On The Train.' As a result, AM New York condemend these passengers by publishing a piece called, "Man spread' a widening blight on public transportation, say riders.'"
Now, it's one woman's turn to turn the tables on two male airline passengers.
The six-second clip shows popular TikTok creator and LA Clippers in-arena host Hannah Cormier (@hannahcormierr) sitting in between two male passengers on a flight. Both men have their legs opened outward in a V-shape in her direction. Instead of accepting it, she decides to make reclaim her space.
"I found a defensive position for manspreading," she writes in the text overlay. While slightly slouching in her seat, the content creator angles her leg in a wide outward half criss-cross position, with her knee on top of her husband's leg. The bottom of her foot touches the back of the other man's knee. At the end, the trick worked, the man on the right scooting back to his space.
As payback, Cormier adds a lie. "'I stepped in goose poop earlier,'" she writes in the text overlay, saying what she told the man on the right. "Smacked his lips and wiped his pumpkin ahh joggers."
The video amassed 1.2 million views. Many females applauded Cormier for asserting her space, where they tried to do the same.
"If I'm middle seat I establish dominance right away," one viewer commented.
"As a woman, I man spread from the start to establish my space," another stated.
Moreover, others shared their methods to combat manspreading.
"I put the tray down the entire time they scoot right over," one commenter revealed.
"I pull my under seat bag out partially and put my feet on it. They have nowhere for their feet," a second shared.
A third even gives male passengers a taste of their own medicine. "I've started manspreading back and they're always shocked but I refuse to move. "
If revenge isn't your cup of tea, the Detroit Free Press recommends politely asking the passenger to move his legs. Sometimes, manspreading can be unintentional.
The Mary Sue reached out to Cormier via Instagram direct message and TikTok comment.