what's the deal with guys who insist on sitting with their legs spread far apart even when they're like sitting in coach on an airplane and there's fuck-all leg room in the row?

I am not torn between that any longer, since I take up about 2/3rds of the width of an airline seat and inevitably get the great "oh since your ass isn't taking up the entire seat and mine takes up more than one seat I'm just gonna start inching over a bit and makin' mahself comfortable" psychological experience (this is actually inexplicably WORSE on Amtrak, which has bigger seats so it makes no fucking sense at all that someone would need to take up all that space). The only problem is that this doesn't predict the occurance of the average sized man who wants to spread every part of his body out everywhere, but I have only once had a problem telling one of those dudes to please stop kicking my purse so I just don't really think about it much.

Now imagine your nipples are being crushed with a vice between your legs.

DIIOTODIS!

http://ed101.bu.edu/StudentDoc/Archives/ED101sp09/jhaj/People/king%20george%20III.gif

Too bad Jefferson didn't add this to his list of indictments in the Declaration of Independence

Also this thread manages to completely ignore the real villains; the capitalist space hoarders who don't provide ppl enough room to sit comfortably on various forms of transport.

i am not a large person but i find the CTA seats (especially on the newer trains, which are awful) uncomfortably small. there have been instances where someone will attempt to sit down in the seat next to me and more or less sit directly on my leg.

i have to sit like this to fit in the seat even on the airplanes that supposedly have more legroom than the norm

I've had this "discussion" w/my gf. I cross my legs alot (which can be even worse space-wise and I avoid it on crowded transport) but is it cool if my knees are no wider apart than my shoulders? Sometimes the nads are sensitive and prone to pain. I don't want to be the db who imposes on someone else's space but can I get credit for a couple extra inches of knee space for appendages that womenfolk don't possess or is that bad? God knows I've had some bosoms (and God knows what other appendages) pressed into my back on crowded evening buses and I've made exceptions for things which aren't voluntary.