Akimbo

There was a boy I knew in secondary school who used to sit on chairs with his legs spread wide open. Lots of boys did this, as far as I can recall, but this one sticks in my head because his legs were practically forming parallel right-angles either side of his body.

I was told in about year 10 or 11 that, in fact, boys always sit with their legs open and girls always sit with their legs closed together. Uh, okay. I've never really thought about how I sit. I usually sit with my legs crossed over - I have exceedingly long legs and they hurt if not allowed space, hence the crossing. And yet I was told, in the aforementioned year(s), that I wasn't acting like a boy because my legs were too close together.

This sort of preconceived idea was picked up by, oddly, one of the nicest people in the year (although not admittedly one of the brightest) - a girl I used to hang out with. We were sitting in the park, a group of us, and she spread her legs and remarked, "Hey, this is well comfortable! It's no idea boys all sit like this!" Um, excuse me? I'm less than a metre away and I was sitting on the grass most likely with my legs close together or crossed.

Of course, then a stray football plummeted to earth, and whacked her between the legs. "Aaargh, my fanny!" was the response.

I still don't quite 'get' what this boy/girl legs thing is about. I mean, I was reminded of this by my memory toda and so I sat in my computer chair and opened my legs. It's bloody painful! Also, it looks absolutely stupid. And now I come to think of it, that guy I knew at school looked stupid too, as if he had a point to prove and could assert it by reminding us all of his masculinity by sitting with legs akimbo on simple school chairs.

This goes back to the old notion that boys want sex and girls don't, I think; boys are open to the idea of what's between their legs being available - hence it being practically on display - and girls being closed to the idea (and their legs the same), but we all know that's bullshit; girls want to have sex too, as Rachel stated in Glee earlier this week. So I wonder what the problem is, exactly?

So I'm going to spend the rest of the day looking at how people are sitting. For the good of mankind, of course. But for the record, however someone may sit (or think they sit how society dictates they sit), I don't mind if they have open legs. Especially when my bed is involved.