Phoenix allowed “No Pants Light Rail Day” to occur this week for the first time since 2020, a day during which people ride public transportation without pants; photos show adults in revealing underwear crammed together on the trains. A version of the event began in 2002, when seven pant-less members of the comedy group Improv Everywhere rode the NYC subway on a winter day. Somehow, the prank attracted more participants, and it occurred annually in New York City until 2020; iterations of the event have occurred globally. 

I remember when progressives — particularly feminists — insisted that the most disgusting atrocity one could commit on public transit was “manspreading,” a term describing a man who sat with his legs spread wide and therefore encroached on the space of others. According to the New York Times, manspreading is “the bane of many female subway riders.” As a writer for Feministing explained, “It all plays out like an assertion of male dominance, in which every one of them feels as if they have to claim their territory and their manhood in this public space, even at the discomfort of all the other passengers.” A writer in Jezebel had some colorful insights, informing the manspreaders that “the major d*** here is not in your pants — it’s you. You’re the f****** d***, so close your legs or go f*** yourself.”

There are plenty of nuisances on public transportation: so-called performers who use the handrails as monkey bars, narcissists who blast terrible music from speakers, singers who can’t sing, hungry rats, and urinating drunkards, among others. But the manspreaders warranted an advertising campaign on the trains and further needed to be photographed and publicly shamed.

Let us reflect on the new standard: It is abhorrent when a fully clothed man occupies a bit of extra space on the subway, but it is delightful when adults are pant-less among children on public transportation. You’re reprehensible if you sit with your legs wide apart, but you’re harmless if you sit on the train in your undies. Got it?