So, I was just sitting here, minding my own business and feeling pretty happy, when out of nowhere I felt a sudden breeze between my legs.
For a split second, I completely forgot I was wearing a skirt AND that I am literally inside my own house. I panicked SO hard. I genuinely thought that classic nightmare where you accidentally leave the house without pants had finally become a reality.
My heart skipped a beat, but nope, just my skirt doing skirt things.
Well, in this case, OP is wearing a skirt, so leaving your legs open while sitting means also exposing your underwear to whomever is sitting in front of you. Obviously it matters less if you’re wearing pants.
As far as gendered body language, it usually comes down to how you cross your legs. Depending on what you have between those legs, certain crossing positions can… squish things.
Since women are more likely to not have anything to squish and more likely to wear a skirt, they are conditioned to cross their legs more often. Men are more likely to not need to care about these things and are free to “man-spread”. This creates the gendered body language stereotype.