In November of 2014, 25-year-old labor organizer, Beth Breslaw decided to walk like a man and confront male entitlement one stranger at a time. She had heard that men were significantly more likely than their female counterparts to not move out of the way when passing by another person. She put this theory to use while commuting from her job from the Financial District to her apartment in New York City.
Indeed, she found that she bumped into a surprisingly large amount of men compared to women. She could specifically remember the men who did move out of the way because there were so few of them compared to the ones who didn’t even adjust their shoulders when walking by her.
This maneuver is supported by a culture that teaches men that they can take up as much space as they want, regardless of those around them. This subtle display of power is also supported by the idea of Game Theory. In order to ensure that there are no bodily collisions, one group (women) must move out of the way to ensure the safety of both groups, while the men are free from needing to constantly jump out of other people’s paths.
As someone who is deeply interested in the behavior of other people and testing these behaviors, I decided to see what would happen if I decided to disregard the cultural incentive to occupy as little space as possible, and instead choose to stand my ground as I navigated sidewalks.
The results were much more dramatic than I had anticipated. I ran into very few women on the street, while bumping into the majority of men that I passed. Most men gave me a funny look while they awkwardly jumped out of the way, and there were a fair amount of men that I actually collided with.
Now, bumping into someone on the street may seem innocuous, but there is actually a deep gender bias that takes place in these every day sidewalk encounters. The subconscious message that men send when they don’t move out of the way is: “I am a male and will therefore plow you over because my personal space is more important than yours.”
Man-slamming is not the only way that this male domineering philosophy manifests. Man-slamming is a close cousin of man-spreading, which involves a male spreading out his legs, usually in public spaces, without considering the personal space of others. Both of these domineering actions are examples of microaggressions, subtle displays of power and privilege that take place in every day occurrences.
I implore you to confront privilege in the most mundane of settings, which are the seedlings of wide scale oppression. Imitate your male friends if they choose to spread their legs out, and instead of sacrificing your personal space on the sidewalk, allow yourself to not compromise your personal space for the sake of others. The dismantling of privilege begins with the smallest of actions.
Be awake to the subtle inequities of the work. Educate yourself about power and privilege. Don’t comprise integrity for convent ignorance. And most importantly, share the sidewalk.
