"Mansplaining"

[Squishedpickle]

Hi all

Following an argument with my husband last night, we realised we have different understandings of the word mansplaining and how this ties in to feminist approaches.

Please could you tell me what mansplaining means to you, whether you would use it as a word, and if you align to a particular type of feminism?

Thanks

@Biscuitsanddoombar

It can be both Squished. Both denying and/over riding

My favourite is still the guy on twitter mansplaining astronauting to an actual female astronaut 😆

Or the man mansplaining a screen play to, what turned out to be, the woman who wrote it.

And kept going after she told him...

@AbsintheFriends exactly. It's a similar reason theres no white history month. The power dynamic means the phrase is set to target the typical oppressor (in the same way black history month aims to bring attention and power to the oppressed)

He thinks that it's an unacceptable term because it doesn't promote equality

Presumably he objects to the term 'racism' then as well because it doesn't promote racial equality?

TheLostDiadem

Many of us have professionally dealt with that attitude.

Have a - whatever floats your boat - for this evening. Positive vibes

@titchy I think that was just bad phrasing on my part. I meant he didn't agree with having a gender specific phrase.

StillWeRise got it: Mansplaining= a man explaining something to a woman or telling her something which she already knows. Especially if she has more experience and expertise in the field than he does. Sometimes made worse if the man ignores the woman's responses, such as - 'yes, I'm familiar with that, in fact it was the topic of my PhD'

Biscuits' graphic demonstrates perfectly

Classic example of a Twitter mansplainer being burnt.

mobile.twitter.com/FondOfBeetles/status/1311369010995441665

Or the much younger male colleague who took me task for misunderstanding a piece of research central to our teaching. Who carried on correcting me even after being told I was the lead researcher, I wrote the book chapter!

There have been MNetters who have had their field of expertise mansplained to them by snot nosed men.

These women wrote the papers. Developed the theories. Designed, and built the "things". Owned the businesses. Built the businesses. Wrote the Code. Worked the industries. Lived the female experiences.

And snot nose upstart men came to school them.

The results are frequently funny.

Upstart snot nose: Blah blah. This is fact.

Real MNetter: No. Because I literally wrote the paper/book.

Snot nose student: Shut your mouth. I know better than you.

X-post

A part of the definition needs to be that he does this only to women, not other men.

That's included in the flowchart. Of course, there are some people who might try to explain things to better qualified people regardless of their sex - that's getting into dunning-Kruger territory I guess.

😁

I heard from him recently. He has some idea that we worked well together and wonders if I would give him a reference.

I last worked with him almost 10 years ago! I wonder how many others he has insulted along the way 😊

In my experience, mansplainers are always men, although I suppose there must be women who do this too. But most will happily mansplain

(Posted too soon sorry!)

But most mansplainers will happily mansplain to men too. Last weekend, I listened to DH's friend explaining in great detail where DH should park, despite DH stating very clearly where he decided to park!

If your DH comes across a woman who has a habit of explaining things to better qualified men but not to women, then of course he can call her a womansplainer.

What did he/you mean by 'how this ties in to feminist approaches, OP? Are there types of feminism which don't notice different patterns of behaviours between the sexes, or feel unable to comment on them?

I was at a conference once sitting next to a man a good ten years younger than me. The speakers were women, I've been in the field for thirty years and also speak at conferences. He was taking up space both literally and figuratively. When I told him he was wrong about a couple of things, and I told him forcefully, he decided to use the Q&A to tell the presenters they should listen to my points.

He went from mansplaining to me, and failing, to mansplaining to them. About me. He couldn't just shut his mouth.

I've never seen a woman behave that way. Women can obviously be annoying and condescending, but that level of publicly taking up space assuming everyone wants to hear their pearls of wisdom, it's only been men IME.

@MrGHardy

I have one issue with this - what if the man in question explains to everyone, not just women?

A part of the definition needs to be that he does this only to women, not other men.

This is key, if a man does it to everyone, it's not strictly 'mansplaining'. If someone patronises both men and women, they are not necessarily sexist, just a knob all around.

Men are mansplainers.

I like the diagram. The only thing missing is tone of voice.

Perhaps if he is unaware of how condescending some men can be to women he could try setting up two Twitter accounts, one male, one female, then making the same factual posts on each and seeing what responses he gets.

Oh lovely he’s gone off to do some research. Because your input as a woman (and his wife) about something that affects WOMEN means diddly squat

dan brown novels - mansplaining from first to last page...

I also use the phrase where a man will go on about something a great length and in very tedious detail when I'm havent asked and clearly have no interest in that particular thing.
My father in law is a buggar for this. I used to try and listen but now I feel it's just rude so I tend to make an excuse and get a drink or something.

Mansplaining exists in the same way that patronising does. Both are condescending explanation by someone to another person who probably knows as much as they do about whatever it may be.

Womansplaining really doesn't get much of a mention because it doesn't happen much, and matronizing properly means "causing to become matronly".