Stanley Kubrick photographs straphangers for Look Magazine in the 1940s. (Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York)
Subway etiquette has been a thing ever since the subway system was built, and the grievances haven't changed much. In 1939, Hunter College students even drafted a subway etiquette code, which insisted that "commuters speak softly, refrain from pushing, spreading newspapers over others' laps, taking a seat and a half, leaning against persons, traveling with children in rush hours and, in general, being pointedly conspicuous."
A few years before that, one New Yorker wrote in to the NY Times about something that sounds a little bit like womanspreading, the female counterpart to manspreading:
To the Editor of the New York Times:
I have tried to accept almost any situation in the subway trains, however dramatic or unreasonable, without surprise or resentment. However, a new problem recently presented itself which demands recognition.
The other day I impulsively permitted a passenger to share my own inadequate seat. Instead of making her presence as unobtrusive as possible, she relaxed in such a manner as not only to force her newspaper upon me but also cause an unfriendly relationship between myself and the neighbor at my right, whom I was unwillingly crowding.
At best, an occupant of an inadequately proportioned seat assumes a pathetic and conspicuous position and should not prefer it to the dignity of standing.
Joan Turner, ladies and gentleman, possibly the first New Yorker to bring the subway "-spreading" issues to print.
