One-Hour Lunchbreak: a Study in Gender, Space and Entitlement

Lunch time is troubling in Midtown- especially for those of us who don't have six-figure salaries or corporate expense accounts. I often bring my lunch to save money, but that leaves me with few options in terms of where to go for my hour-long break. The office break room is just too depressing and usually involves a very gendered fight over the TV remote (ESPN v. Food Channel- you guess who usually wins).

The summertime offers more relief as I can actually leave my mind-numbing office and be outdoors for a bit. "Outdoors" is a term I use liberally here, as it often a paved space that just happens to occur between a street and a building facade that gives the illusion of public space; although I assure you someone owns it- probably all of it. However there is one place with grass and a few trees that has saved my sanity on a number of occasions: Bryant Park. Although it's only the size of a city block and packed with people as soon as the weather gets just warm; I find it nice to see something other than concrete for that precious hour. The city provides tables and folding chairs for the milieu of Midtowners that go there to enjoy some peace on their lunch hour.

Today I had finally found a seat in the crowded park and started into my pizza when I looked up to see this scene right in front of me:

In this busy park two men are eating lunch together at two SEPARATE tables! In the background you can see the lunch break crowds and that many people are eating off of their laps or the ground due to a lack of tables and chairs. But these guys see fit to take up TWO tables?! This story is not uncommon; many men taking up more than their fair share of space because they have been socialized to feel entitled to it. In a city as jam-packed as New York this unequal allocation of space plays out in other public areas like the subway, when a man sits with his legs wide open taking up 2 or more seats (we know- your penis is SO big you have to sit like that!).

But maybe I am too quick to judge, there could be a reason they need two tables or two subway seats, if they sit too close to each other someone might confuse them for homos.