Cali 🇧🇲🇰🇳

The modern taboo against men crossing their legs is very strange. This used to be a completely normal thing. In fact, it was women who weren't supposed to cross their legs. Instead, they were encouraged to keep their legs together and only cross their ankles. We see this in Victorian etiquette guides, such as The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility (1856), which described crossing one's legs as very unlady-like. By contrast, a contemporaneous title published for men, The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness (1860), doesn't mention leg crossing at all, suggesting this was considered acceptable for men. In fact, I would argue that crossing one's legs was considered polite, decorous, and "refined" up until about the 1970s or 80s. Think of leading Hollywood actors, playwrights, and intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century. Portraits of them often show them wearing a suit and crossing their legs. When the senior US commanders of WW2 gathered for a photo in 1945, they posed in the same manner. My guess is that the switch happened sometime in the mid-20th century. Much like how soft pink used to be coded for boys and light blue for girls — which switched shortly after women adopted pink for themselves, spurred on by Mamie Eisenhower's love for the color — men grew scared of being perceived as feminine or possibly gay/queer once women adopted the posture. It's a peculiar dichotomy that Western society has become freer in terms of gender and sexuality. Yet, this freedom has caused undue anxiety among certain men who fear being perceived as feminine or gay. Either way, it's worth noting that if you care about Western traditions — that 1950 life so valorized by some — sitting cross-legged is actually the conservative position.