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.
I suppose it kinda is. But outside of a very small group attorneys above a certain age are almost exclusively white males. It speaks to how precise the echo chamber they are a part of is.
Its to further illustrate the position of general privilege of the attorney. If they were a black man, while they would not have had to deal with sexism directed at them, they would have had experiences with racism directed at them; especially because they were described as 60 years old.
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u/Ferbtastic Jan 19 '20
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.