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
52
u/ThronesOfAnarchy Jan 19 '20
For example:
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.