Fury as Woman Shares How Man Invaded Her Space for 'Entire' 4-Hour Flight

Some situations test the taller among us more than others. An example of this was recently shared by Reddit user Emily Brinkman under the username u/EmilyKauai, showing her recent experience as a 5'8" woman on a 4-hour Southwest flight

In a picture, which currently has over 77,000 upvotes, Brinkman can be seen sitting in the aisle seat, while the man to her right encroaches on her leg space in what is commonly known as "manspreading."

One user sympathized: "I feel you. The straw that breaks the camels back is when the person in front puts their seat in sleep mode. What a nightmare."

Another user commented "Did you say something?" to which Emily replied, "A couple of times I mentioned it, and he would move over, but his legs would casually return to where they rested during his movie." Many users in the comments suggested that the man was in fact the original poster's husband, a claim she denied: "He and his wife had the middle and the window seat."

When airlines measure leg room, they use a metric known as seat pitch. This is the distance from the back of your seat to the distance of the seat in front of you. The global pitch standard is 31 inches, but some airlines offer more. Southwest offer 32 inches, although the global champion is Japan Airlines at 33 to 34 inches.

Manspreading is defined by Merriam Webster as "the act or practice by a man of sitting with the legs spread wide apart (as in a public seating area) in a way that intrudes on the space of others."

In 2017, the Spanish capital of Madrid banned the action on its public transport and, in 2014, the Metropolitan Transportation Association led a campaign in New York City against manspreading called 'Courtesy Counts, Manners Make A Better Ride'. Allegedly, a handful of men were arrested during the campaign but charges were later dismissed.

User No-Debate-3156 wrote, "Last flight I was on, I was seated next to someone who was 6'5. I'm 6'2 and was in the middle seat. NY to LA flight, we were STRUGGLING."

User wnxkrayzie said, "6'5 here, flew LA to Australia, agonizing lack of leg room. Paid the extra 400 dollars a ticket for the seats in front of the partition for the extra leg room on the way back."

User wpaed commented, "I'm 6'2" tall and my shoulders are 26" wide. With seat backs at 18 inches wide, I am thankful that my wife is a petite 5'4" and doesn't mind cuddling when we fly."

Newsweek reached out to u/EmilyKauai for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.