Timothée Chalamet criticizes ballet, calling it a ‘dying art form’
Timothée Chalamet is facing backlash after his response to Misty Copeland resurfaced his comments about ballet and opera being a declining art form.
After Timothée Chalamet attended a recent New York Knicks game, some fans were seen dunking on him.
After Chalamet attended the Knicks-Atlanta Hawks playoff game at Madison Square Garden on April 28, some social media users criticized the Oscar nominee for sitting with his legs wide apart, a behavior also known as “manspreading.”
The “Marty Supreme” actor attended the game with girlfriend Kylie Jenner, flanked by other notable fans including Tracy Morgan, Ben Stiller and Tina Fey, the latter sitting next to Chalamet.
The way he sat at the match drew attention after X’s Faye fan account shared a close-up photo of him and Faye in the crowd.
“Timothée Chalamet, if you don’t stop promoting Tina Fey, I swear to God,” the post has been viewed more than 7 million times.
Is Timothée Chalamet really a manspreader?
In the replies, those who posted comments criticizing the actor were mixed.
One person wrote: “Brothers sitting like they own the whole row.”
“Timmy, give our daughter Tina some room,” said another woman.
Some pointed to the cups collected under Chalamet’s seat.
One user said: “He has to make room for 3 drinks.”
But is Chalamet really guilty of “human proliferation”? Other commenters pointed out that many more men in the row were sitting in similar positions, including Morgan and Stiller.
“Where is this energy that Tracy Morgan is doing the same thing?” one X user said.
What is manspreading?
According to Merriam-Webster, manspreading is defined as “the act or practice by a man of sitting with his legs wide apart (as in a public seating area) that violates the space of others.”
The phrase originated as a colloquial term before becoming widely popular and recognized in dictionaries. Oxford University Press added the word to its dictionary in 2015.
A 2015 Oxford University Press blog post reported that the term was already in use as early as 2008, but the term gained popularity after the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched a poster campaign targeting manspreading in 2014.
The “illegal proliferation” charge is the latest incident involving Chalamet and has sparked public debate. Earlier this year, he sparked widespread backlash when he said “nobody cares” about ballet and opera.
Melina Khan is USA TODAY’s national trends reporter. X Keep up with her at @melinakh and on Instagram @bymelinakhan.
