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The Habit Women Say Is Even More Irritating Than Manspreading

Women are testing what happens when they stop automatically moving aside on sidewalks, and sometimes the result is a literal collision.

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Manspreading has its own Wikipedia page, a dedicated subreddit, and about a decade of cultural real estate. Now another habit is getting under women’s skin: men walking straight at them on sidewalks and waiting to see who moves first.

The habit is simple enough: a man walks straight at a woman and seems perfectly happy to let her be the one who moves. Enough women have posted about it on TikTok and in comment threads that the counter move now has a name. Patriarchy chicken, as the New Statesman called it, means holding your line and refusing to step aside, collision be damned. Hold your line and see what happens. A lot of men........

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