Not an Onion article:Feminist wins award for designing chair that prevents "manspreading"

[Dan From Smithville]

Pet rocks were more earth shaking.

Is that their fault?

 

[Enoch07]

I'm pretty sure its a prank. Male and female chairs. I don't know if they're pranking feminists or men, but its a prank.

Nah it's a real story. NY post, BBC.and other news outlets have a follow up story talking about the backlash of the story. In it the creator of the chair says the chairs are more of a concept to provoke thought and discussion than to be put in use. So I get it. It's just funny that she went with the topic of men solely being a-holes and invading women's private space vs men being a-holes inadvertently due to biological reasons.

 

[The Reverend Bob]

Manspreading affects men too. I was once on the subway and in comes this sweating 300 lbs mouth breathing reptile wearing really short polyester jogging shorts and a Mickey Mouse hat (I swear to God, a ****ing Mickey Mouse hat)who took it to mind to sit across from me and several old black ladies and I and just spread his legs out. Well I can tell you that when he did so the hem of his shorts rode up and his junk became visible, he was breathing hard and looking around as if none would challenge is obvious and deliberate rudeness. I for one was disgusted at the spectacle before me but to shocked to do anything about it except vomit in my mouth when one of the elderly ladies started to giggle which seem to spread to the other ladies and throughout the car. Then one of the ladies commented "It's so small" and another "It looks like a mouse", in which the reptile mouse became indignant as more and more people continued to laugh at him. He threw off his hat, started breathing harder and got up in a huff and rang to stop at the next station, and when he finally left us amidst more laughter, we couldn't help but laugh at the fact he got off leaving behind all the groceries he came aboard with.

 

[SugarOcean]

I saw this yesterday. She wins an award for making a chair to prevent men to prevent "manspreading" from taking up others personal space but also invented a chair for women to encourage "womanspreading" to encourage women to take up other people personal space? ROFLMAO

Did at any point anyone say to her just use a chair with armrest.
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I don't think the judges were actually that smart.She's a Misandrist.
She created a chair to stop manspreading, but invented one to encourage womenspreading. Clearly she has an issue with male genitalia.

 

[The Reverend Bob]

Clearly she has an issue with male genitalia.

Who doesn't? I don't want to look at other people's junk. I have my own junk to look at.

 

[SugarOcean]

Who doesn't? I don't want to look at other people's junk.

I don't. I don't happen to look at men's crotches in public.

I have my own junk to look at.

Well, hopefully neither other peoples junk or yours is out when seated in a chair in a public place.

The man's chair wouldn't actually prevent Manspreading for the determined. All a guy has to do is sit down, bend his legs, and hook his heels onto the cross bars on the side between the chair legs.

 

[columbus]

I don't think the judges were actually that smart.She's a Misandrist.
She created a chair to stop manspreading, but invented one to encourage womenspreading. Clearly she has an issue with male genitalia.

My take on this is that it's more about performance art than furniture design.
Even the designer said something like "Don't take these chairs too seriously."

I think her goal was to draw attention to her more serious designs by making stuff that got people talking and giggling. She used a real, if insignificant, problem to get her name known by the people she wanted to notice her work. Apparently, it worked brilliantly. It got her free advertising such as this thread.
Tom

 

[SugarOcean]

My take on this is that it's more about performance art than furniture design.
Even the designer said something like "Don't take these chairs too seriously."

That isn't in the article. "Don't take these chairs too seriously." In fact just the opposite.

I think her goal was to draw attention to her more serious designs by making stuff that got people talking and giggling. She used a real, if insignificant, problem to get her name known by the people she wanted to notice her work. Apparently, it worked brilliantly. It got her free advertising such as this thread.
Tom

You clearly didn't read the article.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Come to think of it, what I have issues with was never manspreading. It's when you have wide shoulders and have to eat at a small dinner table with another man with wide shoulders. It's not fun when you extend your arms at all to lift the fork or grab a roll.

 

[columbus]

That isn't in the article. "Don't take these chairs too seriously." In fact just the opposite.


You clearly didn't read the article.

The graduate says that her design is not to be taken too seriously but admits that the chairs do give a “physicality to an issue women face in quite a fun yet literal way”.

That's what she said.
Tom

 

[The Reverend Bob]

That's what she said.
Tom

Clearly she didn't read the article she cited.

 

[Enoch07]

I don't think the judges were actually that smart.She's a Misandrist.
She created a chair to stop manspreading, but invented one to encourage womenspreading. Clearly she has an issue with male genitalia.

I don't know if I'd go as far as to say shes a misandrist. But I just feel like shes wasting her talents and time on a silly issue. She could design furniture to help disabled people or veterans or some other worthwhile cause, something selfless.

 

[SugarOcean]

Clearly she didn't read the article she cited.

Clearly I did. Did you?

 

[The Reverend Bob]

Clearly I did. Did you?

Then why didn't you spot this?:

The graduate says that her design is not to be taken too seriously but admits that the chairs do give a “physicality to an issue women face in quite a fun yet literal way”.

 

[SugarOcean]

Feminist who created chair to stop ‘manspreading’ wins design award
We've all been there: having successfully bagged a seat on the tube against all odds, we find ourselves squished between two men, both sitting with knees so far apart that our own could not get closer together to avoid being knocked.

Yes, manspreading is possibly one of the biggest bug bears for women on public transport - and now a feminist designer has come to the rescue.

Laila Laurel, a 3D Design & Craft graduate from the University of Brighton, has designed a chair that features a triangular seat which encourages men to sit with their legs closed, creating a potential solution to the scourge of manspreading.


Created as part of her final-year project entitled “A Solution for Manspreading", Laurel also created a second chair intended for women which uses a small piece of wood in the centre of the seat to encourage female sitters to rest with her legs parted, allowing them to take up more space.

The graduate says that her design is not to be taken too seriously but admits that the chairs do give a “physicality to an issue women face in quite a fun yet literal way”.

According to the online Oxford dictionary, manspreading describes “the practice whereby a man adopts a sitting position with his legs wide apart, in such a way as to encroach on an adjacent seat”.

“I designed and created these chairs in order to identify and challenge problems surrounding the act of sitting that might potentially be more gender specific, such as ‘man-spreading’.”

Laurel added that she is delighted with the response her design has received, saying: "The reaction of the people who engaged and interacted with my pieces at my Graduate show was really encouraging and exciting as it seemed to spark interesting conversations and also make them laugh, which is something I really value in my work.”

As well as receiving plenty of praise for her design, Laurel’s work has been presented with the Belmond Award for emerging talent.

The luxury hotel and leisure company says it looks for designs that show “imaginative and cleverly presented ideas with a considered overall look and feel along with the quality of work displayed”.

Following the announcement, the judging panel said that Laurel’s chair was “a bold, purpose-driven design that explores the important role of design in informing space, a person’s behaviour and society issues of today”.
Speaking to The Independent, Laurel says: “My design practice is contextualised within fourth wave feminism and another huge inspiration for these pieces was Laura Bates’ Everyday Sexism Project, a platform in which women can testify about the sexism they have experienced.

Reacting to the award, Laurel said: “I am completely shocked but very happy and honoured to have won the Belmond Award – and I am looking forward to designing with them this year.”

As part of her prize, Laurel will be commissioned to create a product for the hotel and leisure company and receive a £1,000 bursary.

In 2017, Madrid took a stand against manspreading by banning men from indulging in the leg extending move on its trains and buses.

The city’s Municipal Transportation Company (EMT) installed a series of new signs in all its carriages and vehicles, showing an illustrated man spreading his legs wide apart on a metro seat with a giant red “X” indicating that it is unacceptable.
Madrid followed in the footsteps of New York, which was one of the first cities to reject manspreading on public transport back in 2014.

Its "Dude, please stop the spreading" campaign on the city’s metro network won widespread support with some NYPD officers even going as far as arresting offenders who did not comply.

 

[SugarOcean]

What about a chair with a system of ropes and pulleys that will bind the legs together and improve posture? They can also serve as props for extemporaneous amateur comedy sketches. That would reduce the carbon footprint by about 47% over having two different chairs for each task.

Shhh, that's next years award winner. Don't give it away.

 

[SugarOcean]

Then why didn't you spot this?:

The graduate says that her design is not to be taken too seriously but admits that the chairs do give a “physicality to an issue women face in quite a fun yet literal way”.

That's not the same as what the member had stated about the seriousness.

 

[The Reverend Bob]

That's not the same as what the member had stated about the seriousness.

He said: Even the designer said something like "Don't take these chairs too seriously."
Which is pretty damn close and you denied that anything like that was said.

 

[columbus]

That's not the same as what the member had stated about the seriousness.

Yes it is. It's almost verbatim.
Women's issues she takes seriously. Goofy chairs nobody would buy for seating, not so much.
Tom

 

[Twilight Hue]

And you probably thought this was going to be talking about a Feminist in California.

Feminist who created chair to stop ‘manspreading’ wins design award

Not much competition huh? She's been commissioned to create a product for a hotel and leisure company.

Don't let a plumber sit in that thing.