to think men seem to have taken to MN in their droves recently......and I don't like it

[LadyBlaBlah]

Every thread I go on, there are men putting forward their opinion

I have enough of men in RL. AIBU thinking they should bog off to DN or go play the X Box or something?

Why have the attitude "men have horrid words for talking about the way women speak, so let's have horrid words for the way men speak in return?" It seems a little tit-for-tat. Why not rise above it?

Wind-bag, bore, baffoon.

"Why not rise above it?" translates to "Why not shut the fuck up about it?", I presume.

(Sigh)

Yes, if you like

When you said that Truck, I thought of:

David Starkey
Stephen Fry
Boris Johnson

So you're right, there are words which are primarily used for male behaviour.

However, none of those captures the privilege aspect of mansplain.

I'm happy to use another word if it hits the nail so accurately on the head.

Good. Glad that's settled

But rising above it isn't an analytical position UD.

If you don't analyse and describe something, you don't recognise it and you can't change it.

I look forward to it happening. I expect I will be due a long wait.

And how does rising above it, stop it happening?

Are we not allowed to call men on their sexism then?

I think we are being told to turn the other cheek, HB.

Well it will be a shorter wait if you can come up with a word which so accurately captures the phenomenon, UD.

As I said, I'm happy to use a different word if it is as perfectly descriptive as mansplain.

You're the one who is unhappy with it, so you're welcome to come up with an alternative. ATM I don't think we have another word which can be interchanged with mansplain.

I don't think we live in a world where you can just make up words for things and then say "well, if you don't like it, find another one". It would make a nonsense of language. I think you'll be waiting a long time for this one to appear on "Countdown".

Well I think mansplaining when it is used comes across as dismissive of all men.

A bit like, typical man, it is stereotyping.

Arrogant , big talking, bigheaded, cocky, conceity, full of hot air, gall, ham, hot stuff, immodest, know-it-all, loudmouth, narcissistic, overweening, phony, puffed up, self-important, smart-alecky, snotty, stuck up, swollen-headed, vain, vainglorious, windbag

Eh? Language is constantly evolving, it's a dynamic thing which reflects and feeds into a culture. Of course you can make up words if you want to and if they have resonance, they catch on. Or they die.

Shakespeare was constantly inventing new words. Jasper Carrot apparantly invented the word zit as a substitute for spot (though I always wonder if that is an urban myth).

The word mansplain accurately describes a phenomenon which many women recognise and that is why it has caught on. If it had no resonance, it wouldn't.

This actually was an interesting thread about whether men should be "allowed" or are welcome here (as parents, on a parenting site). It's in danger of being derailed. Do we have a particular posting style which marks us out? Is there a way in which our method of engaging with a topic cane be seen as especially male? And if so, is this not "wrong" but just "different"?

Except 'mansplaining' is not really a gender thing I am sure you have seen women do the same thing.

HB, I'd question the automatic assumption that it has "caught on". Among my peer group in the real world, absolutely nobody, male or female, appears to have heard of it.

I think 'twat' seems to be the most commonly used word to describe men on MN.

I did hear a friend call her DH a twat and wondered if she was using it as a code to fellow MN's but I may have been reading too much into it.

LMAO @ Beer {grin}

Arrogant , bigheaded, conceity, gall,
hot stuff, immodest, know-it-all, loudmouth, narcissistic, phony, self-important, stuck up, swollen-headed, vain,

I think those ones are pretty gender neutral.

The others are probably more used about men though.

I think mansplaining is an internet word atm UD.

Like LOL was five years ago.

People actually say LOL now in RL.