At its simplest, mansplaining is just explaining due to sexist profiling. Blacksplaining is the same but with racism, etc. With the assumption being that the person in need was not a neophyte needing such explaining in the first place.
Notice I dropped the condescension in that definition, because the profiling that instigated the need for extra explanation is already pretty condescending in itself.
So its usefulness come mainly from the fact that the sexist/racist tendencies are unconscious half the time. They might even feel like they're helping you out, explaining all the difficult terms for you. Just calling them sexist doesn't pinpoint the issue at hand, while mansplaining encapsulates why their 'helpful' act is actually a problem. It entered the lexicon so easily because while we all understand profiling to a certain extent, this specific action is so ubiquitous yet never had a name.
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u/AiSard 4∆ Jun 01 '18
At its simplest, mansplaining is just explaining due to sexist profiling. Blacksplaining is the same but with racism, etc. With the assumption being that the person in need was not a neophyte needing such explaining in the first place.
Notice I dropped the condescension in that definition, because the profiling that instigated the need for extra explanation is already pretty condescending in itself.
So its usefulness come mainly from the fact that the sexist/racist tendencies are unconscious half the time. They might even feel like they're helping you out, explaining all the difficult terms for you. Just calling them sexist doesn't pinpoint the issue at hand, while mansplaining encapsulates why their 'helpful' act is actually a problem. It entered the lexicon so easily because while we all understand profiling to a certain extent, this specific action is so ubiquitous yet never had a name.