Womanspreading, or the “power stance” as it is also known, is apparently a thing now. Don’t know what that is? Lucky you! But on the off-chance that you do want to know, Womanspreading is the female response to Manspreading, where women sit with their legs spread, like men do when seated. It is supposedly designed to empower women. Right.
Naturally it has become a celebrity thingy, with a number of celebrity females opting to spread, shoot and then post their crotch-in-your-face image on social media, and why am I not surprised? Because some of the stupidest trends come out of the celebrity circuit and this one would have to be right up there I think.
But let’s look at why men sit with their legs apart. Mainly it’s a matter of comfort. Men are not physically designed to sit with their legs crossed or close together. It’s just not comfortable. In other cases, the male leg spread is a subconscious display, especially amongst alpha types, who will sit back with arms apart and legs spread in a display of male dominance in a male group and is also not an uncommon response in the presence of a female the alpha may find attractive. The key word here though, is subconscious. It’s a subliminal message of sorts.
In relation to women though, the leg spread is entirely unnecessary but fans of this idiocy claim it is designed to empower women. Really? And how exactly does it do that? You see, women sitting with their legs spread also send a subliminal message, but probably not the one the current slaves to this trend have in mind. As opposed to saying “Hi! I am an Empowered Woman!” to every male within eyeshot, the message going out can easily be misconstrued. Like it or no, that’s the message many men will get from a display of Womanspreading. It’s not a good look and let’s face it, it has connotations. There are so many better ways for women to put themselves out there, to showcase themselves and to empower themselves.
Personally speaking, I don’t think the women trending this have really thought it through. Like, they are not only adopting this pose, they are posting images of themselves doing it on social media and we all know what happens with controversial images of ourselves posted online, don’t we? Why, they come back to bite us, often sooner rather than later, because they will end up shared all over the place. Then, try as you might to find someone else to blame, you will end up having to wear it all on your own. Hard to present as a victim when you have done it all by yourself.
I’m going to assume here that not too many non-celebrity women will follow this trend because, as I said, it has connotations, but there are enough sheep out there to have it do the rounds for a little while. I’m guessing though that it may turn out to be one of those five minute wonders, like the short skirt with no knickers trend, which turned out to be just a flash in the pan. At least Womanspreading requires one to wear clothes. Well, for the moment anyway.
Still a cheap shot though
