22: Manspreading – Think Again Before You do It

[00:00:00] Roula: I have, um, I have the next question. Okay. Okay. Why are you blurring everything around you today? I don't have to, it's because Well, it's because of the ugly, bloody, this, uh,

[00:00:15] Welcome to the Rosie and show Marhaba. Good day. 

[00:00:26] Rosie: Rula. Hmm.

[00:00:29] Manspreading. Do you know what? Manspreading. So this is a thing. Tell me if this is not a thing in the Netherlands. Men, again, it's a stereotype, but it's very common. They will sit and they man spread, which means their legs are spread because obviously their manhood's so huge, they couldn't possibly have their legs close together.

[00:00:54] Right? I don't get it. Anyway, the, my biggest bugbear is on public transport. They will sit and take up, probably takes up two, three seats sometimes. They just sit there with their legs spread open and refuse. To pull them in a little bit so you can actually use the seat next to them or either side of them.

[00:01:18] But what do you think about manspreading? Is it a choice or do, do men just, man, they're so well endowed, they just, it's biologically impossible to sit with your legs together.

[00:01:33] Roula: I cannot answer the biological question, I'm going to go on a quest and please male listeners, we want to hear from you. Is it hard to close your legs when you're sitting because your balls are in the way?

[00:01:51] It's hilarious you're asking me this question. I'm watching a series shrinking and I noticed the guys in the series, they're manspreading. Every time they sit, they're manspreading. And I have not noticed it before. Oh, um, in a way that it's bothered to me. Okay. I'm watching the series and seeing it all the time.

[00:02:15] I'm like, it's disturbing. Like, I don't want to look at your thing when I'm watching the series. 

[00:02:21] Rosie: Look at your thing. That's right. It's just on display, wide open. Just look at me. 

[00:02:28] Roula: Well, public transport is so annoying. So annoying. 

[00:02:30] Rosie: If you're at home, sure, whatever. Do what you want. I mean, sometimes it is comfortable.

[00:02:36] It's hot and you have your legs apart. I don't know. But it just feels a bit. In your face. 

[00:02:43] Roula: Do you know where it's not a problem, the men spreading? Where? In Arab country. Excuse me. Ah. Where they wear the white jelaba. Yeah. And then they sit and they spread their legs, but you don't see anything because this dress they're wearing is covering them.

[00:02:58] True. To their ankles. 

[00:03:01] Rosie: So is it a visual thing then? It's, it is. And I have to ask around and I hope people will let me know, um, if, if this is something that men do it consciously, is it part of it? Yeah. Is it a power thing? Does it hurt to close their legs? 

[00:03:19] Does it hurt? I just roll my eyes. There might be a very small population where it does, but I feel like for the majority, that's bullshit.

[00:03:26] I would you say women with a large labia, is it uncomfortable to close your legs? Like, come on. Yes, maybe it is, but do you see the majority of women? Men's women's spreading. I don't know. No, 

[00:03:39] Roula: I mean, we have to do it. Try it. I'm not going to be the one trying it yet. Oh, okay. Then. All right.

[00:03:49] It's it. I don't know. It has something comfortable in it because Even as a woman, when I manspread, it feels comfortable until I'm conscious of it. It's like, Oh, okay. Okay. I'm going to now sit. 

[00:04:07] Rosie: Yeah. Right. Right. There's something underlying it and I can't quite say what it is, but to me it feels like a power trip when men do that.

[00:04:16] Like when I've worked in a more corporate setting and men do that, it just makes me Oh, sit down, legs apart. You know, you're in the boardroom. I'm like, what are you doing? Sometimes they'll have their hand near their penis. Like, come on. 

[00:04:31] Roula: It is disgusting. It is. When I enter a room, a meeting room or a restaurant or a room, whatever, I see a lot of men spreading.

[00:04:40] Yes. I find it disgusting. I don't want to see this. 

[00:04:45] Rosie: What if they're wearing something that's really quite tight and you can just see it all? 

[00:04:50] Roula: Oh, that must be uncomfortable. It must be.

[00:04:55] Yeah. Unless they want to show it. Yeah, I guess. Wait, why not? We're being very crazy in this episode, but yeah, these are questions that women wonder. Why not? Why not? Yeah. Yeah. Men spread it. Yes. I don't, I don't. No, no, no. It's nice to be discreet. Uh, wear baggy pants. Actually, wearing baggy pants are much more sexy.

[00:05:19] Wearing, wearing regular pants, I think. Okay. Yeah. You know, at the beach, for example, you don't see anymore, anyone wearing, uh, any man wearing or someone with penis wearing, uh, this tight. Speedos. Speedos. I don't know even what you call it. Um. They don't wear that over there? No, no. But when I see someone wearing it, I like it.

[00:05:45] Yeah. It's like, it's well, well you can't help but look like, yeah. But just like women wear also their, their bikini. Right, right. Or we want to go shirtless or topless. Yeah. I can imagine men also want to wear speedo. So, so at the beach, it's okay. 

[00:06:03] Rosie: Do you know, hang on, I gotta share this. This is definitely a, an Australian thing.

[00:06:07] Do you know what we call speedos or the little bikini things that men wear? No, a slang, bgy. Smugglers. . So a bud, a budgie is a little bird that you have as a pet, right? So budgie smugglers, 'cause the budgie are the testicles . 

[00:06:23] Roula: In Europe you rarely, you don't see them wearing these. And I even think in some places they're, they are forbidden.

[00:06:33] Like really, someone has to wear shorts. Wow. Wow. That's pretty extreme. I think George Michael and Wham! They are the one who started this fashion, this trend. Yeah. And it's been going on for years. 

[00:06:45] Rosie: I mean, I admire their confidence. People who wear them, right? You're very confident. It is extremely revealing and sometimes I don't really want that in my face.

[00:06:54] But hey, go you. You're being confident. Why the hell not? And they're definitely not as confident the whole package, yeah? Yeah. The whole package. What do you 

[00:07:03] Roula: mean? Only that part. Like the body has to be nice. We can't have it all. Yeah. We don't want also to deprive ourselves from looking at nice, nice things.

[00:07:16] True. So if it's a nice, person with a nice body, why not show it? Just like for women too. I don't mind looking at beautiful people. Um, it's, it's nice. 

[00:07:29] Rosie: It's become such a contentious thing to look at somebody's body. 

[00:07:35] Roula: Yeah. And I don't mean beautiful people only with beautiful bodies, like, like top model bodies.

[00:07:41] I also like to look at people who are so imperfect in many ways, and yet they look so pretty, even at the beach or at work or whatever. 

[00:07:53] It's beauty is not in the perfection. No, stuff that. In the boardroom we don't like. Manspreading. Also at the beach restaurant, we don't want manspreading, but if they want from time to time to wear a nice bidet.

[00:08:13] Rosie: I've got a quick story, right? I know I've been talking a lot. It's to do with manspreading. There was a substitute teacher. When I was in primary school, so the teacher that comes in and covers your class when your teachers away sick, he would wear their shortest little shorts over here. We call them stubbies, but they're very short, short, like short, short, short.

[00:08:33] And he would sit with his legs wide open and on occasion his balls would slip out. Oh, no underwear. no, this is, that's not a property on purpose. Yeah. Like that's, that's no, that's not, you shouldn't have been teaching, right? 

[00:08:54] Roula: You shouldn't be teaching. No, I don't think bad of people, but some actions, I feel like they've done on purpose.

[00:09:04] You'd think you'd know. And this is same for women when their boobs are outside of their t shirts or, yeah, this is also on purpose. You cannot possibly not see them. 

[00:09:16] Rosie: And okay, accidents happen, but when you realize you do something about it, so. 

[00:09:21] Roula: Yeah, but this short, because I've seen, I've been in these situations where some men were sitting wearing two shorts of a short.

[00:09:32] What do you call them? Stubbies. stubbies and I could see their genitals and it's so disturbing. It's so freaking disturbing. 

[00:09:42] Rosie: This just made me think of, this is not manspreading, but when I was in France, I did a French exchange. Okay. And you know, in, in many European countries, it's, it's, you see someone, even if it's a stranger and kiss, kiss, you know, you say, hello.

[00:09:56] Well, we're on the beach. This man is stark naked. I would have been 14. I had never seen a penis before, this huge ass fricking thing dangling down. I was mortified just averting my eyes and my host family, they were all going up to this man, they don't know, kiss, kiss, muah, muah, to this man who is naked.

[00:10:17] And they sort of looked at me expecting me to do the same. And I was like, hell no, I do not feel comfortable. I'm not doing that. 

[00:10:25] Roula: No, I have like, okay, this is, we're telling stories now, but it's kind of fun. It's fun to see naked people. So we go to the spa and in the Netherlands spa, you go naked and it's fine. I love it. Wow. Okay. Some people say, no, I love it. Yeah. You would. One day. We, we go to the spa in Amsterdam, where we live, and we go there thinking we would never meet anyone we know.

[00:10:55] Okay. Yeah. One day I made a reservation and it was on a Tuesday, but because they didn't have any spots left and Tuesday was bikini day, I was so disappointed, but I took it because I want to go to the spa. Okay. Okay. And for the first time ever, I meet someone I know. And I was so grateful. It was a bikini day.

[00:11:20] I don't want to meet people I know at this spa. And it was a man. We were both so happy. 

[00:11:30] Rosie: So you don't mind going naked, but then if it's someone, you know, you do care. So that's interesting too. Yeah. 

[00:11:36] Roula: That's interesting. Yeah. Because I feel like I don't want to know people this way. Quite intimate really.

[00:11:43] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even my friends. I mean, we never had this conversation. Oh my goodness. That's a very good conversation to have next time. All right. Is it time to wrap up the episode? I think it is time to wrap up. Manspreading is disgusting, but let us know guys, or people with a penis, is it uncomfortable if you have to sit with your legs together?

[00:12:02] Is that why you manspread? If not, why do you do it? I don't like it. Or, or what, what's on your mind? Why don't you just close your legs when someone else enters? Yeah. Right. If someone needs to sit there, put your legs together. Yeah. Bye. Bye. 

[00:12:18] Rosie: If you got a kick out of our conversation today, can you pretty please hit the follow button and share it with another opinionated person? This is the easiest way for you to support the show. It also gives Rula and I the motivation to keep going. I have to 

[00:12:34] Roula: stop you there. Stop telling people what to do.

[00:12:38] If they like to follow the show and share it, it's totally up to them. Guys, please, can you help us follow and share the show? Thank you so much. See you next time.