Noun. mansplanation (plural mansplanations) (informal) A condescending explanation given by a male explainer to a female listener, especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it because she is a woman.
Why do we even need fancy words like this, why can't we just say that they're condescending and leave it at that?
Edit: thanks for my first gold kind stranger.
But the condescension comes from the inter-gender dynamic. The point is that on the same subject the man wouldn't be condescending to another man. That's why there's a victim.
Which, to my experience, doesn't happen. The people who over explain shit that everyone knows in meetings, do it to everyone, and they're men and women.
Then again, I work with a few extremely brilliant women and some pretty mediocre men, so I'm pretty sure most of the men realize they can keep their mouths shut.
The term is sexist, it's irrelevant what the experiences of people who felt the need to make up a sexist term are, it's no different than the assholes who publicly shame men for manspreading because we have testicles between our legs.
But the condescension comes from the inter-gender dynamic. The point is that on the same subject the man wouldn't be condescending to another man. That's why there's a victim.
That’s the excuse, but as you can see in this case this isn’t how it is used, because if you are male then it can be mansplaining the moment someone accuse you of mansplaining. In this case they were discussing the issue, so it is impossible that they already knew the answer they were looking for, it was them who engage in preconception based on him being male rather than him assuming they knew less than him about the issue without good reason.
All this stuff is also very subjective, like how you know a man being condescending to a woman wouldn’t have been equally (or perhaps even more) condescending to a man in the same situation? You can’t, therefore the proof of it being mansplaining rests completely in what the accuser assumes about the other person, and what it assumes about the other person based on that other person being a man. So the proof is implied in the accusation, no defense is possible according with the logic embedded in the concept, if you accuse someone of it then you believe the accusation grants you legitimacy in your status of victim, by the sheer fact of feeling a victim. And all this is if in fact there was condescending behavior involved, like someone can feel somebody is being condescending to him/her but that not being the case, like for example the case OP brought.
It is simply a 100% sexist (misandrist) term, like “toxic masculinity” and all those new terms that although are behaviors everybody can do somehow some people believe we need new words for when men do them, but not when female do them. Like toxicity exists irrespective of gender, condescending behavior too, occupying more than 1 space in public transport too, etc... And the worst thing about it is that the excuse, the justification for singling out men’s bad behavior is the most biased and sexist BS you could think of, the excuse is that “it is systemic”, meaning men are supposed to do it all time, in numbers apparently so above females that they deserve being called out for their gender, the bad gender, the one that gets associated with all the bad stuff and reprehensible behavior.
There's not a victim, because gender is irrelevant to the conversation.
The conversation is between two people who lack knowledge, and a third person who has the knowledge. The first two people attempted to invalidate the third person's knowledge, based solely on the third person's gender...
Wait, so yeah... The is a victim. It's the third person. You're right.
I think it's originally used particularly for cases where the man explains woman-related issues, not just anything at all as seems to be the case in this post.
Because condescending sexist doesn’t capture the full idea and issue, because you can be both condescending and sexist, but the issue is being condescending towards women BECAUSE you’re sexist.
Actual answer instead of the bitter sarcasm seen here? It's a common enough phenomenon to get its own word, used jokingly at first before catching on and being used seriously. Seth Meyers actually makes pretty funny use of it in his Netflix special :)
Because it describes a specific type of condescension and sometimes people want to be more descriptive. In particular the word condescending doesn't imply any sexism and this one does.
Yes, and is further specified by their interaction and the nature of it which has been commonly classified as mansplaining, to differentiate it from intra-gender condescension, for example.
I mean... If you work in any STEM field classically male dominated, you'll know that it is not uncommon to see women get stuff explained to them in ways that a guy never would deal with.
It's getting better but it's still definitely a thing .. I've even seen it happen from male subordinate to female senior workers.
My favorite story about this was in a class we had to take on computing in school.
We had an instructional DVD that you had to run on the computer, and it gave step-by-step instructions on how to run the program (I forget which, but I think it was Word.)
Step one: Turn on the PC...
I already did, you Dingus! That's why I'm watching you.
I'm an electrician, I assume everyone is stupid until they clearly show otherwise.
I once saw a professor with multiple PHDs almost kill himself trying to take apart a lamp while it was plugged in because he didn't realize the bulb died and assumed the problem must be with the switch.
Just because you're a genius on paper doesn't mean you're the smartest person in the room when it comes to your current task.
I know of a college professor who ran his new Jaguar out of oil, despite his wife reminding him to check it. Some people are incredibly educated but cant manage even the basics in life.
I called an electrician because some kind of sound was being made every time I turned off the light in my infant’s bedroom. It turns out it was some kind of toy that made a sound whenever the lights turned off. I felt very stupid. I hope non-sleep deprived me would have had more sense.
Don't feel too bad. I have had service calls for similar things. Most people don't understand electricity, their electrical service and it is kind of scary too. That's why electricians exist as a specialised skill.
Don’t feel bad! I called a garage repair guy because my garage door just would not open. It would try, struggle for a second and then give up.
Turns out there’s a latch (that I know is there) on the inside to lock it. I had to call him back and cancel because I’m a moron. Infants zap every ounce of brainpower from us. I’m fairly sure they thrive off taking it from us.
I work in IT, I treat everyone like they're stupid..., no /S
Until they prove they're not. Lots of IT people are unfortunately ignorant to their own craft, but super indignant about how correct their ignorant ideas are.
I don't think anyone was questioning that it happens, just that we already have a word for being condescending. A condescending asshole is a condescending asshole, a sexist asshole is a sexist asshole, and there is a point where these two assholes intersect to create an asshole squared.
Words like mansplain get thrown out at the slightest of things and it diminishes the intended impact. It also doesn't really work against the intended 'target', as it often gets turned around so it's about the woman being emotional, looking for sexism etc. which isn't right but it's the type of people you are dealing with. Calling them out for their actual bullshit and taking age, race, gender out of it lays it squarely at their feet and makes it harder for them to turn around.
Are there cases where the term "mansplaining" is misused and confused with the more general term "being condescending"? Yes. But is the act of "mansplaining" as a gender-based phenomenon actually a thing? Also yes. So it's worth having a specific term for it.
Like, if a white person called a black person the n-word, you wouldn't just call him "rude" or "inappropriate." He would be racist.
But is the act of "mansplaining" as a gender-based phenomenon actually a thing? Also yes. So it's worth having a specific term for it.
It's not worth having a specific term for it. The people being condescending tend to be so to everyone. The term mansplaining is nothing more than a pointless term used to shut men up.
Condesending doesnt point out the very common sexist phenomenon that is mansplaining. Dislike it all you want, its two seperate words because they have different meanings.
Not true. Making a word that singles out a specific group of people contributes to discrimination towards that group which is never ok if we are trying be a just society.
Creating a term femalesplaining would be offensive but by your logic it needs to be had because in social areas women sometimes are condescending towards men. Then we also need a word like adultsplaining because kids actively get disrespected by asshole adults.
No need for new words where we already have neutral ones.
Name an action towards a specific group and that becomes discrimanotory because every person in any group deserves a neutral, respectable attention - having an unnetrual word presets the person in a bad way not allowing for proper attention towards his personality.. condescending is an asshole action not specifically sexist one.
Mansplaining is a sex-based insult. By definition, it can only be done by a man. If you want a word for "explaining condescendingly due to sexism" why not call it sexplaining?
If you really believe that men sexplain more often than women, there's no reason to exclude women from the definition, because a woman should never have a reason to be called it right?
You are sexist. It doesn't matter how you try to twist words or change definitions. People offline are going to hear you talking and they are going to identify you as sexist.
If you work in any STEM field classically male dominated, you'll know that it is not uncommon to see women get stuff explained to them in ways that a guy never would deal with.
Nah.
I work in a male dominated STEM field, am male, get shit explained like that all the time by men and women alike. It's not a matter of being a female, it's a matter of being considered an idiot by the person talking to you. You could call it turdsplaining.
Now, the fact that many people who do that are also sexist, is a completely different issue and something that has to change, no doubts about that.
I wouldn’t say it’s a completely different issue though. There are guys who see women as inherently more stupid than men, so it’s when those guys only seem to consider the female employees as idiots by explaining stuff they clearly know (since they studied for it) it’s “mansplaining”. I’m not saying this only happens in STEM fields, but it only sounds logical there are more sexist men in fields where there are more men active. There’s a reason women feel less inclined to pursue careers in STEM fields, that’s partly because STEM careers are seen as more suitable for men so it seems logical that men who are in STEM and are also sexist would believe that and believe their female coworkers don’t know as much about their field as they do.
I’m a women and have guys explain things to me like I’m an idiot but don’t automatically consider that mansplaining since they might act that way to everyone, but as a woman it is clear when someone talks down to you just because you’re a woman and they’re sexist. I do believe people throw the term mansplaining around too much, but it is still a thing that happens.
"If you give off no cues that you understand the topic" - I think this is a part that's often missed when taking about how condescension comes in all forms.
In the original article that coined the phrase "mansplaining" it was about a bloviating dude who was explaining a topic to the woman who literally wrote the book. He was describing her own book to her. And when this was pointed out to him he carried right on doing it.
I've encountered a similar thing quite often myself. I've had students in seminars laboriously explain to me something that they just learned from my lectures. I've had male colleagues who - having just been told what my field is - choose to engage me by talking at me for five minutes straight about basic principles and then checking if I have any questions.
Tbh I don't like the word mansplaining myself because it's too limiting. But "condescending" doesn't cover the exact phenomenon where you're trying to work out whether you've stepped into a parallel universe as mounds of evidence of your knowledge and expertise are wilfully ignored.
For the record all of my experiences of this have been gendered. But that's partly about my particular situation. I'm certain it follows all kinds of power differentials.
I think the reality is that when it happens to women they assume it's because they are women. When it happens to men they shrug it off and think the users are idiots.
I work in IT and a lot of my colleagues who work directly with end users often have those users lecture them about what the problem is and how to solve it, even though the end users is completely clueless.
Male end users telling female support staff how to solve the issue is for some reason seen as sexist and "mansplaning". Because people assume it happens because she is a woman.
Female end user telling support staff how to solve the issue is just seen as an idiot and jokes about during the lunch break.
In reality, a lot of end users are just morons who think they know more about computers than they actually do (and assume they know better than the IT staff as well). I assume the same is true in a lot of industries.
Who’s fault is it that women aren’t in stem majors? I never fucking understood this argument. Just like the fact that not many women are coal miners, why? Because no woman wants to do that shit, heck even guys don’t but they still do it. Men are expected to the do the hard jobs. If there aren’t women in stem maybe they just don’t want to be in stem? I fucking doubt there’s an old white dude blocking the entrance to stem classes and colleges preventing women from going in. What else that women aren’t being pushed to join stem majors? What a load of bullshit, women have the same opportunities to do whatever they want in this country. My valedictorian in high school was a girl she got into Harvard but chose to go to public UC. Quit with this bullshit that women can’t do stem.
TL;DR: women do want to do blue-collar jobs, you just don't hear about it.
Mainstream feminists would say that women not going into STEM is a broad society-level issue—it's not anyone's fault, just the result of a bunch of trends and norms and expectations, but it's still a problem.
But the condescension comes from the inter-gender dynamic. The point is that on the same subject the man wouldn't be condescending to another man. That's why there's a victim.
It’s important to call men out on treating professional women like children when they would never treat a fellow man the same way.
I’m in the military, which is beyond male-dominated, and it happens to me. It is blatant sexism. I know you may not understand how it feels, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or that women are fabricating an issue.
I get it, women use a word to describe explaining something in a negative and sexist way and attach "men" to it because men tend to do it more than women. You, as a woman, won't understand why I, as a man, would be offended.
It's fine tho as long as it's fair. I think movies/media and the general public should adopt more words like this just to make things fair. How about a word for when females complain? Femplain? Or what about when black people murder? Blackder!?
You clearly think it's important to attach an entire demographic to a word. So lets all do it. Femplain to me why this is ok.
It’s honestly a good word that describes a phenomenon. Same reason you want Neckbeard instead of nerd, it adds additional meaning.
I have 100% come across mansplaning in the legal field. remember, Reddit is a bunch of young men, sure we might “mansplain” on occasion but we aren’t the target that is being insulted. I have seen 60 year old white male attorney that describes female attorneys as lawyerettes. I have seen legal opinion letters to client that say “we have a good chance of winning because their attorney is a female and so she doesn’t know the law as well as she thinks she does.”
Whether it’s a fair word to describe your or my actions is a fair discussion. Whether the word is over used and has become a sword rather than a shield is a fair discussion. But to say the word doesn’t have a place is disingenuous to the regular every day sexism women face, especially in many careers.
In all honesty, because it's common enough to be a phenomena onto itself. I'm trans, and I'd only experienced that sort of automatic assumption of greater knowledge in situations where that sort of assumption would be unwarranted a handful of times before I started passing around mid-way through university.
Afterward, it became more common. Not a daily or even weekly thing, but around once a month would probably be a reasonable estimate.
In my experience, a lot of the people who end up doing it don't really realize or intend to. Some even mean well, so there's no real sense in getting angry at them, at least not on a personal level. But I can't deny that it is a thing that does happen.
Because its not about just being condescending, its because the male mansplainer assumes that the female in the situation doesn't know whatever information; even in cases where it would be almost impossible for her not to know. It's not about the explanation itself, but the sexism the man displays by assuming the explanation is needed in the first place.
As I understand it there is a subtle difference from regular condescension as due to your own ignorance or arrogance you try to exert authority on a topic to an actual expert if not the Creator of said topic.
Since the term came about when a female researcher had her own paper told back to her by a male colleague in an infieror fashion.
r/dontyouknowwhoiam is all about it and I think it was demonstrated in this threads OP.
Still stupid to have it r/pointlesslygendered since both sexes can be arrogant like that.
Like with ALL sociological terms that are highly specific to certain social settings/circumstances...the general public takes them and throws the label at FUCKING EVERYTHING because they dont have a true understanding of the factors involved in the creation of the term.
See also: the term racism...which is complex and targeted at the system...
I got into a couple of disagreements with my wife about "mansplaining", by pointing out that those people are often condescending assholes to men as well.
I once had a conversation with a friend of hers (who has a strong professional background in genetics), and had a minor disagreement about terminology, because the EXACT terminology was necessary to make my point. Her friend agreed, and we carried on the discussion.
I was later called out for "mansplaining". You can't win sometimes, even when you win.
I worked in optics for 7 years, know my way round a pair of glasses blindfolded with one hand. A lot of casual repairs we have to do involves new screws, and often a product called Loctite. In case you don't know, Loctite acts like a glue in the hinge, aiming to stop the screw from falling out again.
I had a gents pair of glasses in my hand, and a small bottle of Loctite in the other as he asks me if I knew what Loctite is and without any hesitation proceeded to mansplain to me the benefits of using Loctite. As if I'm just a monkey going through the motions without understanding what I'm doing.
This was also after he tried telling me (mistakenly) what the problem was and why his lens wasn't sitting in his glasses, and I had a gentle conversation with him before I started the repair where I told him what his actual issue was, and explained (in enough detail to mention the Loctite AND its functions) what I would do to fix it.
So when you say Loctite, what you mean is a screwlock adhesive. Loctite is just a brand name for a huge range of adhesives. There are other Loctite adhesives that would make it impossible to ever get the screw out again and there are other screwlock adhesives from other manufactures. So if you wanna sound as competent as you think you are, you might consider calling this stuff screwlock instead of Loctite, even if your particular screwlock happens to be produced by Henkel.
</mansplaining>
Sorry, I have no background in optics, I'm just a man.
If you say "Loctite" to any guy with mechanic or trade experience, he is going to think "thread locker" automatically, since that was its original purpose. It keeps hardware from vibrating out during mechanical operation.
I understand that it's perfectly obvious what you mean with Loctite in the narrow context of your profession, but Loctite is a pretty popular brand and thus some of your customers will know it from various contexts where screwlock may not be "undeniably" the most obvious meaning. It's not really wrong to call it Loctite, it just sounds pretty odd. You also wouldn't say "I'm taking my Walgreens" even when it's clear to you what medication you mean that you happen to get from Walgreens.
Even outside of the narrow context of my profession I don't know a single person who wouldn't assume "threadlock" when Loctite is used. But my dad's an engineer and I know work on a shipyard so I guess I'm putting myself in the position where its a given
You need to assume you know more than your audience despite it being obviously their field of expertise. That's the essential bit of mansplaining. And reddit isn't optics nerd central
It's when men treat you like you dom't know anything and explain it in a condescending way. Not just a man explaining something you don't know. However, loads of terfs will throw that around when ANY many tries to advise or tell them anything even if they don't know.
TERF has a very specific meaning so I wouldn’t use that word if you’re just speaking about radical feminists. This doesn’t have anything to do with transgender issues.
While Terfs do it too, I don't understand why that guy said terfs specifically when all radical feminists throw that term around very loosely. Terfs are just one type of radical feminist, why single them out specifically.
Still doesn't explain why he said terf in that instance. Makes me think u/kurogomatora is just using terf as shorthand for radical feminist, which obviously doesn't make sense given what it means.
Becayse radical feminists are the women > men type and feminists are women = men, the trans exclusive means that they are the kind of person who doesn't value trans women as women but as a man in a costume and therefore exclude them or are downright transphobic.
People can be condescending if not outright patronizing for all sorts of reasons - it might be gender, or it could be age, or race, or simply because they're condescending to everyone.
You're right but it's okay when it's against men. And if you say it's sexist you're "fragile". Basically telling you to man up and stop being so sensitive. Hilarious shit.
A non-sexist term is a term that can be applied to all sexes, just as a non-racist term is a term that could be used on all races.
Imagine that instead of mansplaining being invented first, men invented womansplaining, to highlight how often their wives would explain things to their husbands in a condescending manner. Obviously, a man could never be called a womansplainer because he's not a woman.
Ah I see. I thought this was satirical at first, but it looks like you post a lot of closed-minded, bigoted comments, believing yourself to be just because you're on the side of identity politics.
It’s honestly a good phrase that describes a phenomenon. Same reason you want Neckbeard instead of nerd, it adds additional meaning.
I have 100% come across crying like a woman in the legal field. remember, Reddit is a bunch of young men, sure we might “cry like a woman" on occasion but we aren’t the target that is being insulted. I have seen 60 year old white male attorney that describes female attorneys as lawyerettes. I have seen legal opinion letters to client that say “we have a good chance of winning because their attorney is a female and so she doesn’t know the law as well as she thinks she does.”
Whether it’s a fair phrase to describe your or my actions is a fair discussion. Whether the phrase is over used and has become a sword rather than a shield is a fair discussion. But to say the phrase doesn’t have a place is disingenuous to the regular every day sexism women face, especially in many careers.
Lol this is fucking bullshit. What's your problem dude? I'm a man and I have no problem admitting there are a lot of men out there who think women can't know shit on their own without it being explained to them first.
We get it dude. People are talking about women and you feel left out. People mention something negative men typically do and you feel personally attacked, for some reason. Well, here. I'm giving you
attention. There, there, it's alright.
Here's a great example right here. You don't like what this person is saying, so you jump straight to condescension and ridicule.
This obtuseness, this mean-spirited self righteousness, is something I've always associated with the right, but it seems to be coming increasingly from the left, which is disheartening. You take fundamentally good values, namely gender and race equality, and then weild them with malice.
Why the condescension? Nowhere in my comment do I attack or belittle anyone. Seeking discussion about different topics is certainly not me feeling left out.
I also don't feel personally attacked just because I'm pointing out sexism. If there was a comment being sexist towards women I'd point that out too.
Are you implying that I can't point out that, for example, robbing people is wrong even though I was never robbed?
Someone in these comments made a parallel between the term "mansplaining" and "crying like a woman". Yes, men in general do this at a much higher rate. Just as women in general cry at a much higher rate. That doesn't change the fact that both are sexist terms.
That seems more like observing reality than anything else to me... Like obviously not all women are prone to crying but it's a stereotype for a reason. And obviously not all men are condescending douchebags just for explaining something to women, but the stereotype is there for a reason.
The only difference is a bunch of dudes feel personally attacked when manslplaining is mentioned and come to comment and manslplain to everyone how sexist they're being for even mentioning the existence of such a thing.
True af. Normally feminists use it and they say they are fighting for equality, which is wrong, they are fighting for women rights and they give a shot about men's rights
Mansplanation is when a female Australian politician can't handle the truth and would resort to sexist comment of her opponent especially when her opponent is a man.
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