'I felt shame over my behaviour on a flight – especially when cabin crew were called'

A man has been blasted for 'manspreading' on a without considering the impact it would have on other passengers.

The 26-year-old explained how he was travelling on a six-hour and was seated between a woman in her 20s and another in her 30s.

Describing himself as "tall", he says his knees often start to hurt when squished into the same position for a long length of time. He said on : "I usually try to take a walk around the airport before flights to stretch my legs, but neglected to this time. It was Spirit airlines so even less legroom than usual.

"About half an hour after take-off I found my left knee inching to the side for the sweet relief of open space, specifically, the no-man's-land in between seats, level with the shared armrest. But I wasn't paying attention to my knee the entire time. I'll concede it's possible that at some point I was occupying space that rightfully belonged to my window seat neighbour. All was well for 2 hours."

It was at this point when the woman in her 20s called over a flight attendant to complain about him encroaching into her space. She asked her something like "Could you tell him to keep his ****ing leg in his own ****ing seat." With horror, I understood she was talking about me. I instantly retracted my leg in deep shame.

"She added something about "his enormous ****" -- my understanding was that it was meant to be a snide reference to the idea that spreading your legs is about male genital comfort. But she wasn't speaking very clearly, and the flight attendant, in her 50s, didn't seem to understand her. The flight attendant asked her some sort of clarifying question but she didn’t answer and eventually the attendant went away.

As soon as the flight attendant left, he started "frantically apologising" - but he says she wasn't having any of it and instead blanked him. He said: "[The other] woman said she had some extra space on her side I could use, but then promptly went to sleep. Oh well.

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"I tried again to apologise to window seat woman, but again she ignored me. I went from embarrassed to confused. I kept replaying it in my head, wondering why she didn't simply ask me to move my knee instead of calling over the attendant.

"She ignored me the whole rest of the flight and I ignored her. I got a good but painful workout of whatever muscle it is that keeps your knees together." Commenting on his post, one user said: "I'm a more average man at 5'11 and I always get an aisle seat or business class for the extra room.

"The window lady called the attendant for her protection, but also to shame you into compliance, and rightly so, you should be ashamed of your behaviour. It sucks to be in your position, due to airline passenger abuse, but you are knowingly doing so without improving your situation either, then imposing onto those women."

Another user agreed: "You knew you were in her space and hoped she’d say nothing and make herself smaller and uncomfortable so you’d feel better. She probably payed extra for the window seat so she could be comfortable and you felt entitled to occupy her space. I’m a super small girl who travels a lot and men do this to me all the time and I have scrunch myself up in my seat so I'm not touching them.

"You could of asked if it was alright for you to spread out - I've had tall men ask me before and that super small gesture makes me feel so much better. I’m never going to say no, I've even switched seats. Yes, she handled it poorly and she might be an a***hole too but you're the a***hole."