Have you ever noticed how gendered seating arrangements are?
Last Thursday evening after we had been watching a film in the department library, I settled back down in my office to procrastinate over some work, when there came a knock at the door. My friend Luz, having missed her bus, asked me if I fancied a drink. As it was late, and I knew I'd be leaving soon anyway, I did the decent thing and agreed.
We popped down to The Central, and although I got the drinks for some reason I was the first to sit down, while Luz was still at the bar. I sat on the bench running alongside the window, which meant that Luz sat on the chair opposite me. For some reason instinctively I felt that I had crossed a line and acted in an ungentlemanly manner by choosing this seat rather than the chair. I asked Luz whether she minded sitting there, and whether she would prefer to sit on the (more comfortable) bench. She was not quite indignant, but told me that it was always the women who sit on the benches and the men and on the chairs, and she saw no reason why this should be the case. I looked around the pub, and realised that she was right. In every arrangement where were a man and woman sitting together, the man was sitting on the chair and the women on the bench. I couldn't stop looking around and noticing this for the rest of the time we were sitting together in the pub.
I was reminded of this when I saw a story about controversy over the seating arrangements on the BBC breakfast sofa recently. For those of you not abreast of the story, the male host is apparently always sat to the left of the female host of viewers see them, and this implies some kind of seniority. This may be partly because the male host is often older, and I guess, more experienced. However, when a young pup of a male co-host replaced the older male presenter recently, he was still sat in the (apparently) more senior position, on the left of the screen. You can read more about that story here: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/16/bbc-breakfast-countryfile-louise-minchin-sofa-dan-walker
