*ugh* see, it's got nothing to do with hygiene. Get a tennis ball, put it between your legs, then imagine the tennis ball is the most sensitive part on your body.

Also, I think it's courteous to put up with that discomfort for someone else to have a seat, but the two girls in the cartoon are easily taking up three peoples' worth of seat, unless you consider that because there's two seats it's a two person spot, which make one seat a one person spot and one would be quite justified in taking up their full allotment of room. Also, it's public transport, you're going to touch other people. This argument is normally made because some woman is offended that she has to see a man's crotch. Well, my eyes are up here, OK?

This is my point. If you're expecting men to be considerate of how woman are different and have different problems than men, then perhaps it's not too much to expect the same courtesy in return. I agree I've gone about this all wrong, but if you perpetuate genderfication just because you're a woman and you think your problems are more significant (which they are, I absolutely agree), then you green light men to do it. The patriarchy hurts us all, and it's on all of us to fight genderfication, especially within ourselves.