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

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.

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.

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.”

"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.

"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."

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.”

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.

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!