I think it’s fair to point out that there is a trend where men will do this to women in situations where they would never do it to another man. The way people use the term annoys me more often than not but I still think it’s a valid concept.
You want to be treated like a man (if you are a girl)?
I don’t understand why people are surprised there are gender differences. It’s supposed to be. And we are supposed to react to eachother, be different to eachother. It’s natural biologically and physically and this is completely obvious.
You think women don’t explain to men how something works a million times a day? I hear it so often I can’t even count. It’s perfectly natural.
When you’re sitting in on a condescending lecture, how do you know that the person giving it wouldn’t be just as condescending towards a man as well though? I feel like there are two answers here:
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You don’t, and they could just be generally condescending.
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This is a trend with this man towards women, and in my opinion in the term “mansplaining” isn’t harsh enough. Call them what they are, misogynistic assholes.
You underestimate my need of superiority, every one will deserve my explanation, men, women, children, fish, cat and dog, and the explanation of my explanation and it’s prequel and sequel. Yep, I have adhd.
It is a very real thing and it happens at every level of organization. Talk to pretty much any woman engineer or manager and you’ll be able to get very many stories of men explaining the woman’s area of expertise to them. I’ve seen it happening everywhere from office stand up meetings to academic conferences where people have specializations as narrow as evolutionary models of pro-social behaviors in apes.
Yes, many of us are enthusiastic about our areas of expertise. I can go on for paragraphs about the evolution of sociality. That’s a completely different thing than trying to explain what misogyny actually means when talking to a person with a PhD in Women’s Studies.
A co-worker once explained to an attractive lady who ran a cake shop how to make cheese cake. In great detail.
He’d just eaten a piece of excellent cheese cake that she’d made.
I have some knowledge in a specialized area of manufacturing products, for ease we will call this “machining” but I do reference something specific for this post (more specific than the typical “general” usage of the word.“machining.”)
People who do not work in my industry constantly tell me how to do my job, incorrectly I might add. I also happen to be a cis male. I’m not convinced this is a gender specific thing, I’m very certain of mine, and “mansplaining” as described by you happens to me, when supposedly it should not due to my gender.
So I suppose I ask, does it go from simply “confidently incorrect” to “sexist asshole” simply because the person was talking to a woman? Is it then misandrist when the explainer is a woman and the explainee is a male? “Confidently incorrect” can then only be accurately applied if both parties identify as the same gender, otherwise it is [gendered prefix]-splaining?
Agreed. I tend not to shut the hell up when you get me rolling on certain topics - it’s not a dig at the people I’m talking to, that’s just how getting excited do.
Now a days I just preface it with “feel free to shut me up” and if that disclaimer doesn’t do the trick, it’s on the other party. :P
