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Feminist Designs A Chair That Prevents Manspreading, Wins A Design Award
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Feminist Designs A Chair That Prevents Manspreading, Wins A Design Award

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The act of ‘manspreading’ has gotten probably more attention than it really deserves over the years. Sure, it’s a social faux pas as selfish and obnoxious as any other, but the gender aspect always seems to bring out division and over-reaction, to the point where manspreading has been described as an exhibition of male social dominance.

Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

Enter 23-year-old Laila Laurel, a 3D Design & Craft graduate from the University of Brighton.

For her final-year furniture design project called “A Solution for Manspreading,” she created two wooden chairs. One for men – shaped in such a way as to force him to sit with his legs closed – and another for women, with a small piece of wood in the middle to encourage her to sit with her legs parted.

Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

Laura told The Independent that the chair designs are not to be taken too seriously, but give “physicality to a social norms issue women face in quite a fun yet literal way.”

Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

“My wooden furniture design practice is contextualized 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,” she said.

Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

“I designed and created these pieces of home furniture in order to identify and challenge problems surrounding the act of sitting that might potentially be more gender-specific, such as manspreading.”

Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

Laurel’s work has impressed many people, going on to win a Belmond Award for emerging talent. The award, presented by the luxury hotel and leisure company, said that the chairs were “a bold, purpose-driven design that explores the important role of design in informing space, a person’s behavior and societal issues of today.”

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Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

Laurel added that she was shocked and thrilled by the positive reaction to her design, which also proved a big hit at her Graduate show.

“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 made them laugh, which is something I really value in my work,” she said.

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Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

What do you think? Clever statement about a serious issue, or lighthearted look at a minor annoying habit? Either way, a dose of humor is always a good thing when setting out to tackle social issues, and Laurel’s tongue-in-cheek designs have definitely gotten people talking about manspreading again!

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Image credits: lailapoppylaurel

Here’s what people had to say about the designs

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Ilona Baliūnaitė

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Author, BoredPanda staff

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I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

Read less »
Ilona Baliūnaitė

Ilona Baliūnaitė

Author, BoredPanda staff

I'm a Visual Editor at Bored Panda since 2017. I've searched through a multitude of images to create over 2000 diverse posts on a wide range of topics. I love memes, funny, and cute stuff, but I'm also into social issues topics. Despite my background in communication, my heart belongs to visual media, especially photography. When I'm not at my desk, you're likely to find me in the streets with my camera, checking out cool exhibitions, watching a movie at the cinema or just chilling with a coffee in a cozy place

James Caunt

James Caunt

Writer, Community member

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James is a Bored Panda reporter who graduated with a BA in Peace And Conflict Studies and an MA in African Affairs. Before Bored Panda, he was an English teacher and also travelled a lot, doing odd jobs from beer-slinging to brickie's labourer and freelance journalism along the way. James loves covering stories about social and environmental issues and prefers to highlight the positive things that unite us, rather than petty internet squabbles about fictional characters. James is the grumpy, contradictory one who thinks that Bored Panda, due to its large audience, has a social responsibility to inspire and inform its readers with interesting issues and entertaining, well-researched stories. Let's do our bit to make our little corner of the internet a smarter, more truthful and less angry place!

Read less »

James Caunt

James Caunt

Writer, Community member

James is a Bored Panda reporter who graduated with a BA in Peace And Conflict Studies and an MA in African Affairs. Before Bored Panda, he was an English teacher and also travelled a lot, doing odd jobs from beer-slinging to brickie's labourer and freelance journalism along the way. James loves covering stories about social and environmental issues and prefers to highlight the positive things that unite us, rather than petty internet squabbles about fictional characters. James is the grumpy, contradictory one who thinks that Bored Panda, due to its large audience, has a social responsibility to inspire and inform its readers with interesting issues and entertaining, well-researched stories. Let's do our bit to make our little corner of the internet a smarter, more truthful and less angry place!

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Dana Dara
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How ridiculously offensive. My husband literally cannot sit like that without intense pain. Idiot.

Vani
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This whole post made me quite upset. "Manspreading" is not a thing ... Gosh!

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miniarmour 42
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is terrible man spreading isn't about asserting dominance or whatever. Mens testicles over heat very quickly and spreading legs helps cool them off. If the balls become too hot it can lead to becoming sterile.

iblowsheep
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It has mostly do with the anatomy of angle at which the legs meet the hip.

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Jack Dorian myers
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Manspreading is a thing you wanna know why? Our BALLS. Yep I said it. We have junk that is uncomfortable when we squish it together. Dont get offended femenists that we are anatomically different Also, what about pursespreading. Women put their purses in seats too. Iive I. NYC and I see it all the time

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Dana Dara
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How ridiculously offensive. My husband literally cannot sit like that without intense pain. Idiot.

Vani
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This whole post made me quite upset. "Manspreading" is not a thing ... Gosh!

Load More Replies...
miniarmour 42
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is terrible man spreading isn't about asserting dominance or whatever. Mens testicles over heat very quickly and spreading legs helps cool them off. If the balls become too hot it can lead to becoming sterile.

iblowsheep
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It has mostly do with the anatomy of angle at which the legs meet the hip.

Load More Replies...
Jack Dorian myers
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Manspreading is a thing you wanna know why? Our BALLS. Yep I said it. We have junk that is uncomfortable when we squish it together. Dont get offended femenists that we are anatomically different Also, what about pursespreading. Women put their purses in seats too. Iive I. NYC and I see it all the time

Load More Replies...
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