Girl Math *eye roll*

Awful, but if you have to use it, at least use MATHS

I've only ever heard other women use the phrase "girl math" and almost always in an ironic way. Therefore it's not something I feel it's a priority to police.

Reminds me of a certain generation of women who get absolutely furious when other, younger women refer to their group of friends as "the girls" because they're infantilising themselves and that is the number one feminist priority in the 21st century.

I know - I've got it now. I read that the woman was asking the men to explain. It's OK, I think we're all thinking the same thing.

She saying the word “mansplaining” is used to take the piss out of men who explain things in a patronising manner to women who know more than them. Thats the same as the definition you looked up.

Ah OK - got it. I read "used to have the men explain" as "used to get the men to explain" as in "used to have the men make the tea" or "I'll have my son collect you from the shop"....it's a slight language nuance, although now I read it back it's not very good grammar.
Do you know what I mean though? Someone might say "Oh, I'll have my Gran knit you one of those".

I’m a girl (woman). I am an award winning accountant with a medal of achievement in my chosen field, and a degree in Maths, and I hate that I sort of identify and get the girl math thing.

I’m absolutely known for saying if I buy it with cash it’s free (because in my head if it’s not in my bank account it’s extra money), or if I return and buy something it only cost me the extra.

But it’s because I budget closely using my bank balance, and once money has left my bank it has been liberated from the budgeting and so it can be spent freely.

So I hate that it’s sexist and dismissive of girl’s STEM abilities… but I wholeheartedly identify with it, despite being a “girl” with a talent for STEM!

Are rosemarbel and randomchap not using the exact same definition?

She didnt ask the men to explain. Why would she, she designed and wrote it. The men took it upon themselves to explain it to her in a because they thought that as a woman she couldn't possibly understand which is condescending. Therefore the example given to you was textbook mansplaining.

At least four posts saying it's an American term as though that's relevant to the OP?

It's slang that is widely used online... The Internet does not belong to America. Borders don't really apply anymore for slang and haven't done for at least 25 years?? You regularly see viral phenomenon dismissed as American and I find it absolutely bizarre, is it a generational thing? Do you not understand that people don't need a passport to use reddit or YouTube? One person, in any country posts something on the internet and within in an hour it's an international bit of slang.

Is this why people go mad when they see someone use an Americanism on MN, do they think that an American has crossed without their paperwork to some sort of online version of British soil? Like an Internet embassy.

I usually pause, leave an awkward silence and then thank them for their mansplanation. They usually get the hint 😂

I use it all the time. I think it’s been reclaimed. Originally it was probably a bit of an insult, but it is used as Google suggest now much more widely.

For example, if I’m paying for my holiday in advance of going (which for me I always do, and recommend people do), in jest I will say that my girl math says it’s free because it didn’t come from the payslip in the month I’m going.
Or if I want something expensive, I will divide the price by an arbitrary number of times I’m going to use that thing, to make the thing less expensive and joke that my girl math says this thing is only £1.80 per wear which is actually excellent value for money.

It’s really just used in my circles very light hearted. Tbh if I saw someone using it in the insulting context as you demonstrated you saw, I’d just find their comment a bit weird and lacking in value.

I understand it to be "the explanation of something by a man, typically to a woman, in a manner regarded as patronising or condescending" (I just looked it up on Google to check).

@randomchap said "At the risk of mansplaining mansplaining, isn't it taking the piss out of blokes for being patronising to women who know more than them.
My old boss used to have men try to explain what some software did, software that she designed and wrote. To me that's mansplaining"

The boss was a woman. Her asking men to explain something isn't mansplaining. Or does randomchap mean that when she got the men to explain they would be mansplaining?

I think most women get angry at mansplaining, rather than laugh it off.

Well it's an American term hence 'math' instead of 'maths' and only really used for fun on TikTok

Well it's used proudly by women and I also don't like the term but it's only women to blame for this. Same with 'I can't pay the mortgage' trend.
Invented by women who are desperate attention seekers

Yep. Women who are genuinely high achieving and successful in their careers don't use twee terms like Boss Babe. They simply don't need to. Their achievements speak for themselves.

Eh? This is exactly what mansplaining is.

I think you’ve misunderstood the term.

No, it's not that at all.

Google says the definition of Girl Math is "a term used to describe the financial rationalizations that some women use to justify spending money. It's a fun, unserious way of justifying purchases that might not be essential". However, that's not the context I hear it used in.

this context in itself is drippingly sexist and disparaging of women.

At the risk of mansplaining mansplaining, isn't it taking the piss out of blokes for being patronising to women who know more than them.

My old boss used to have men try to explain what some software did, software that she designed and wrote. To me that's mansplaining

Think it's just a bit of fun, TBH. Never heard it used derogatorily.
Im an accountant and studied maths. If I find £5 in my pocket and buy a £3 coffee, the coffee was free and I've made £2 profit because girl maths.
I also gently tease my boyfriend about his "boy maths" of only buying (for example) one tin of beans every week for half the cost of a multi-pack of 4, because "I only need one for this week" despite having beans every single week and spending twice as much as he needs to on them.

It’s a bit inane but ‘boy maths’ also exists… as in the 45 year old bloke having a midlife crisis and spending £5/6/ 7k in a guitar he can’t play properly ( I know several at this point!) because his hit record will pay off the mortgage in a year

I can't stand women using terms like this, including girl boss, boss babe and other twee, patronising nonsense that they're dumb enough to believe to be 'empowering'. I'm even starting to hate the phrase 'I'm a strong, independent woman', even though I love strong independent women!

Mansplaining is another term that is against women too. Both imply women don’t know what they’re talking about and that we need the big important men to do the boy math and mansplain things for us.

You are not being unreasonable, as having read your description it is clearly being used as a demeaning insult to women's intelligence. I have, however, never heard of 'girl math' until this thread.

Frigging stupid American phrase by the look of it, considering the absence of an 's' at the end of maths.

Sorry but YABU - the term 'man maths' has been around for decades

Not boy maths though. And not woman maths. But man and girl.