Patriarchy chicken

[ToddlerMumma]

I heard about this game on the radio and have tried it a few times. It's where you don't get out of the way when walking down the street. You just walk in a straight line to your destination.
I don't know about you but I'm usually bobbing and weaving around men people when I'm walking and it's really quite strange (and liberating!!) to just keep walking. I've had a few near misses, loads of annoyed looks and some men people just stop in front of me, confused.
Have you tried it? It's made me think when I walk with my young daughters and tell them to 'get out of peoples way'. Why should they? They have as much right as the next person to walk their path

I must admit, I haven't ever found this. I usually find that both people move a little bit, the exception being the ones who are in their own world or engrossed in conversation, and that's both sexes. If I catch an oncoming person's eye, I've never had them not move a bit and I do too.

Maybe more a city thing. I live in a small town with quite a few narrow bits of pavement, and you're more likely to get into an "After you" "No, go on, after you" standoff tbh.

I have experienced the complete opposite around here, I honestly think it's a town country thing, now I'm in a small town everyone steps aside to the point of ridiculous, and at road junctions (often priority is unclear) everyone is giving way and not wanting to go first. However we have second home owners and you can tell they have arrived en masse because they do not step aside, barge into you in the supermarket (whilst moaning that they always have pomegranate molasses in Kensington, loudly) and they speed on twisting lanes not giving way! Ironically I'm a Londoner by birth but I've learned how to live here (full time)

The funniest part is when both parties try to move aside and get it wrong - I call it the doorway dance and it usually provides a laugh.

I am fat, middle aged and slow.

The absolute worst when I'm running is couples out on "walks" together. Often holding hands. And completely incapable of standing not next to each other to let the lardy puffer pass by.

You DEFINITELY can't miss me and I sound like an asthmatic steam train. Move.

I do this on the school run with ds. There's a guy on a bicycle who rides up towards us regularly as expects us to get out of the way. I tell ds to spread out a bit and the guy is forced to get off his bike and go round us. There's a narrow path where I refuse to move out of the way. Most on the path are decent school dads I recognise or know and let me pass or I let them pass in a nice turn taking kind of way.. Others think they own the place and they get stared down. I wear sunglasses even in the rain so they don't know if I've even seen them and I just keep walking straight ahead.

For me the worst are those people (male or female) who have absolutely no spatial awareness. They believe they can walk while looking at their phones and expect a path to clear. They have their dogs on long leads across the path (or worse, the cycle lane) and expect you to jump?

I will say for all the people who say that's not their experience... just do it consciously for a day or two. if you STILL find that your experience is that people move out the way, brilliant. But I had the same - I thought it couldn't possibly be true and in fact, I often found men would hold doors or step back for me to go first etc. And then I got pregnant and had terrible SPD and couldn't move and suddenly I was being bashed around all the time. And I started the realise that the same man who will stop and let you go through a doorway first will, 10 seconds later, be walking down the street completely oblivious to a woman walking towards him and will just assume she will get out of his way.

I always move or step aside for anyone who I judge to be less able to move than me. So that’s anyone older than me, with a visible disability , using a walking aid, pregnant women , anyone carrying a heavy load / baby / small child, anyone towing a couple of small children , one parent with a buggy ( but not a group of them abreast ). The more polite will nod / smile / say thank you .

I always move for staff in pubs / restaurants / public transport etc

I NEVER look at or make eye contcat with the non movers. I just stare into the middle distance and make them move.

Manchester Piccadilly station is good for this game. You do have to navigate around the meanderthalls and phone zombies though.

If I am on a pavement facing the traffic, then I would move out of the way.

However, if I am on the pavement on the left side of the road, and the traffic is going in the same direction as me, then no way am I stepping onto the road for anyone. The last person who bumped into me however, was a female runner, who I think must have done it on purpose, as I was already as far left as I could have been on the left but she moved diagonally into me that I shouted "left!" at her.

People walking glued to their phones annoy the hell out of me, and I have had to shout "watch out!" a couple of times. Some brush shoulders with me without ever looking up from their phones. Why do people do this!

I don't understand this either. The only situation I can think of when this has been an issue is heterosexual couples holding hands who won't let go of each other.

I do this all the time now. I move completely out of the way for elderly people or anyone frail/ disabled/ struggling in any way. If the person approaching starts to move aside so day. I don’t move at all for physically able men or big wide groups that show no sign of moving to the side at all. On occasion we have ended up pretty much chest to chest at which point I just stand still . They always look very surprised. IME the bigger the man the more likely they are to do this.

We used to say "steam gives way to sail". The faster more nimble person moves.

I think it depends where you live. Thick men can't cope with it I find, they do not know what to do and sometime just stop.

I've tried this in the swimming pool.

The results are entertaining.

Gosh, you're brave!

I love that this is a thing! I've noticed this for a long time as a short woman - find myself ducking and diving all over the shop. For a time a few years ago I was on crutches so decided to effectively do this, as it was much harder for me with an injured knee to make twisty movements to weave around. Even on crutches some men still seemed to think that I would / should be the one to alter course.

I sometimes fantasise about what it must be like to walk a mile in my husbands shoes, the difference the world must feel like striding around as a 6"2' white man as opposed to a 5"1 woman.

100% this - it's the aggressive 'you bumped into me!!' Glare / harrumph / insult. They're utterly oblivious to the fact that it goes both ways. The very epitome of male entitlement.

I walk fast. I move to the left unless the person approaching has already moved to their right. People almost always move for me. I could look like a boy, from a distance, maybe.

I developed a technique for this when I was out for my walks on the canal towpath during covid. Say I was walking on the left, I would slightly raise my right arm by about 30 degrees to subtly indicate to an oncoming walker that they should move to their left too. I didn't actually point my finger, just a slight signal with my arm indicating the general direction I expected them to take was enough. I surprised myself with how effective it was!

My technique for getting through crowds at commuting time (in London stations/the tube) is to stride purposefully with my right hand out in front of me, at more or less waist level, indicating that I'm walking straight ahead. People do almost always just move out of the way! Recommend trying this when you are playing Patriarchy Chicken.

I have also invented a new game for my commuter train and the tube, which I shall call (Wo)-manspreading Chicken. When you are trying to sit down on a train or tube seat but the man in the adjacent seat has his leg /knee extending into the space immediately in front of YOUR seat, you purposefully stare at their leg, possibly adding a polite "excuse me" as you indicate by your body language that you are aiming to sit down and expect them to move their leg from your space (is the space in front of the seat, the width of the seat). And /or as you sit down, make sure your own leg is extending along the edge of your own space, so the man spreading leg can't just extend back into your space.

Makes for a much more comfortable journey without having to sit in a way which allows the adjacent man to occupy your space.

Hand position a bit like this. No smile, no clipboard though....