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“There Was A Long Pause”: 71 Embarrassing Moments Featuring Guys Mansplaining To No End
An unchecked male ego may manifest itself in different ways. It could be in the form of toxic masculinity, which is immediately off-putting.
Then you have guys who mansplain, which is more of a slowed-down, drawn-out form of torment for the person enduring it. These women would know.
In a recent Reddit thread, they shared the worst experiences they’ve had dealing with a man who was embarrassingly out of his depth yet chose to blabber on. Disclaimer: You may find yourself cringing a lot as you read through.
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#1
A (white) man tried to tell me that it's offensive to refer to myself as half Black, and I should instead be saying I'm half African American. Mansplaining and whitesplaining at the same time. It's like the world's worst BOGO. 🙃.
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#2
I had a man in the gym ask me what “i think” feminism means. i said equality of genders. he said i was wrong, then pulls out his phone and loudly asks chatgpt in the middle of the gym what feminism means. and it responded with exactly what i said.
#4
Tried to mansplain insurance to me and argue that the specific endorsements I requested did not exist.
I was a licensed insurance professional at a corporate risk management company. Not just a worker, I was a dept head.
After he rambled for 40 minutes I told him to open a web browser and enter the ISO form number, which immediately pulled up the endorsement he just argued didn't exist.
There was a long pause, then he said, "I'll send it to you by end of business today." And hung up.
#5
My ex husband tried to mansplain to me about a story he had never read, by an author whose work he had never read. Whom I had written papers in college on...
#6
I have a history degree. I’m planning a trip to the UK. I made a post about it on another account and specified I was visiting England. I mentioned my history degree in the post as seeing Roman ruins is one goal of the trip.
Some dude hopped in my inbox to explain that the UK is made up of multiple countries. When I said I knew that he cussed at me.
#7
A guy tried to mansplain investing to me. We each pulled up our Robinhood portfolios. My return was 30% higher than his.
#8
I have a pretty strong dislike for Sigmund Freud, and once in conversation I made a joke about him. A man that was there then launches into a spiel about Freud, how his work is misunderstood and misrepresented, how his contributions outweigh his eccentricities, etc.
A lot of what he said was factually incorrect, and I told him that. He then proceeded to try to argue with me.
He did not know I have a PhD in Clinical Psychology. It did not go well for him.
David 11 minutes ago
having a PhD in Clinical doesnt mean you know anything about Freud, considering they stopped teaching his work years ago for clinical, outside of some undergrad primer courses. You work in Theory in Psychology you will learn him, bc you are studying how things evolved in the field to understand how it will progress next.
#9
I’m a former 911 dispatcher and my husband tried to mansplain how cops would respond and handle a situation and he was wrong. I was stunned at the audacity.
Edit: he’s an electrician.
#10
How flossing doesn’t actually work and that he does all of his own dental work. I was in dental assisting school at the time while he was tattooing people out of his house at the time.
#11
How to delete something in Microsoft word.
I then mansplained how Excel works. He got really offended and said “that was unnecessarily condescending.”
I said “so was telling me how to use the backspace key.”
He went beet red and never spoke to me again.
#12
My job. I’m a dancer at a night club. I wasn’t doing it “right” but somehow got him to spend 100s without him realizing the game.
#13
The weather in Scotland.
I moved from Wisconsin to Scotland 11 years ago. When I went back for Christmas the first time, my cousin’s boyfriend asked me how I liked living here. I said I really loved it except for the weather.
Him: Oh, why?
Me: Well, it rains a lot, which is kind of depressing.
Him: It doesn’t actually rain that much in Scotland.
Me: What? Haha. You’re joking?
Him: No, it doesn’t rain in Scotland.
Me: Um. It rains in Scotland all the time. The country is kind of known for it, in fact. It’s rained basically every day since I’ve moved there.
Him: Nah, you’re mistaken.
Me: You think I’m mistaken about…knowing whether it’s raining outside or not?
Him: Yeah. Because it doesn’t rain much in Scotland, because of the Gulf Stream.
Me: …The Gulf Stream is literally what makes it rain so much. I’m sorry, have you ever actually been to Scotland?
Him: No, I just know a lot about weather.
Me: So, sorry, you’re telling me that you, as someone who has never been to Scotland, know more about the weather in that country, *where I live*, better than I do?
Him: Yeah.
Me: Excuse me, I need a drink.
Mrs Irish Mom 4 hours ago
Live and born in Ireland and i went to Scotland for a week and my god I've never felt cold like it before
#14
That women cant drink beer because it will give them a yeast infection.
And hummus was actually cheese, not chickpeas.
#15
Once saw a brit guy explaining this woman how to pronounce some words in Spanish correctly. Only issue she's from Spain, born and raised there all her life.
#16
Male coworker tried to mansplain how poorly women get treated in the workplace. Sir, at that time I had been in the workplace for 13 years.
Michael Largey 5 hours ago
Sometimes the man is trying to express solidarity rather than mansplain. But it can sometimes be very hard to tell the difference.
#17
I've had a French man argue with me about what it's like to live in the Deep South. He had never been there. I was born and raised in Mississippi.
Michael Largey 5 hours ago
Possible exception here. I've known MAGA southerners who tell me that there's no racism back home and race has never been a problem there. You don't have to visit the south to know better.
#18
How women shouldn't be in the military "because periods are unhygienic".
Michael Largey 5 hours ago
Neither are bowel movements, but they allow those male soldiers who p**p to stay somehow.
#19
A pilot I was dating once tried to mansplain to me that the Shakespearian play “Much Ado About Nothing” is a musical (it isn’t) despite my background in theater.
He also assumed he needed to explain how airplanes fly as though I’d never taken a physics class before.
He was a bit of a tool.
#20
I was sitting on the gyms floor resting between sets and a guy came to explain me that I shouldnt do that because the floor is dirty, and then proceeded to explain to me how the floor gets dirty: people walk all over it, they come from the street. I was insisting that I wanted to rest and I didn't care and he kept explaining me why the floor was dirty and shouldn't do it for 5 minutes straight. I finally told him that I had a neurological disorder that made me fall sometimes and I preferred to sit on the dirty floor than to break my head against it, he finally left me alone.
#22
I mentioned that I was on birth control pills to regulate my periods, but also used condoms for health reasons (I was not in a relationship, so any s*x I was having was casual).
He tried to explain to me that I didn't need both, because the condoms also worked as birth control. When I said I used them to prevent STDs he went "drop the pill then". I explained that I needed the pill to regulate my painful periods and he said again "but then you don't need the condoms".
We went through several rounds of this until I just gave up and walked away.
Edit: "walked away" was figurative here, this was an online interaction. Dude wasn't trying to f**k me, we never even met.
#23
That I need to travel. At that point I had lived in 7 states, traveled 48 states and 30 countries. I wasn't even born in an America. But thanks? Btw- he only had been to one country outside where he grew up.
Michael Largey 5 hours ago
Most women have encountered men who made them conclude that departing for a faraway place was an appealing idea.
#25
An obese male coworker earnestly telling me, a size S-M female, what I should eat to prevent obesity... “No listen, you really want to avoid carbs”. Mister, I can eat carbs.
That was … weird.
It included having a go at the lunch I was eating then and there. I obviously ran to the bathroom straight away to check if the sandwich I had just had, made me overweight in an instant!!!!!
#26
How contracts work.
I’m a contract lawyer.
#28
Explained to me what happened during a war from the country I’m originally from… he was COMPLETELY off.
#29
Tried to convince me that Crazy Little Thing Called Love was originally an Elvis song, and the Queen version was a pale imitation.
#30
Human trafficking and that I need to be hyper vigilant. I work as a DV advocate and I’m a woman. Sigh….
#31
That i was a cop out for getting an epidural during labour.
I just laughed at him and walked away..... I wasn't even talking to him.
#32
My own university project I coded built and modelled...computer science was an... interesting experience from a sexism point of view to say the least.
#33
How pronounce the word "Saguaro". I'm native to the region they reside. He tried to explain to me (incorrectly) that you *"actually do pronounce the 'g' in the word"*.
He did not like it when I told him he was wrong and proved it to him...
Toothless Feline 46 minutes ago
Well, the ‘g’ technically does affect the pronunciation, just not in the way he thought…
#34
My cycle. My ex was obsessed with telling me about which different phase I was in. It never failed to pmo.
#35
One colleague of mine, very compassionately btw, started naming the lung segments for me out of the blue when I read to him one report. We’re both specialised physicians practicing the same, I’ve been working longer than him, and this matter is something that every minimally educated med student knows.
#36
At my bar job, telling me how to make a cocktail or a drink even though I said sure, showed no confusion in how to make them and I didn’t ask. Heck I could be making it in their face and they’ll chime in like you put this in next. I’m too blunt, I went to a man in a group with his friends “can you stop mansplaining my job to me” and he was like “what’s mansplaining?” And his friend burst out laughing, explained it to him and told me he liked me 😆.
#37
Different motions I could use to dust something off. With demonstration that lasted about 3 minutes.
The only reason it went on so long is because I was genuinely shocked by how dumb he must've thought I was.
#38
How to do a haircut. Licensed for 30 plus years. He was the handyman at the salon.
#39
I work in health care and have to take call which means when an emergency comes I have to be able to make it to the hospital in 30 minutes or less. A guy I dated who worked in the food industry tried to tell me “that’s not how call works”. lol, ok.
#40
TMI, but a few years ago I was passing large amounts of blood when going to the toilet, enough for the inside of the bowl to be red and the paper to be soaked through with it. Made an appointment with my GP and told him my symptoms.
He explained that I was only getting "skid marks" of blood and that they were normal when wiping. Even when I reiterated that no, I was passing a considerable amount, he insisted that no, it was definitely just a few skids and I should be more gentle when wiping. As if he'd been there in the bathroom with me! I was so caught off-guard by his attitude that I couldn't think of a response and ended up just getting another appointment with a different (female) GP who thankfully listened and referred me to a specialist.
#41
When it was a fairly new concept, “mansplaining” came up in a meeting at work. A woman in the room was explaining to our boss what it meant when one of the men in the room interrupted, starting off by saying “What it really means is…“ and he proceeded to mansplain mansplaining to all of us. (This was not a joke, and he did not understand why we were all laughing.).
#42
Winemaking process, I have a master’s degree in wine and spirits. That happened last week, I was trying to sell a man a bottle of wine, in the wine shop I’m currently working at, then at some point he stopped me and gave a rough explanation about how grapes were harvested and turned into wine. The dude was a car mechanic (I asked because I thought “Maybe he’s also working in the industry”), I mean, do I look so stupid that I wouldn’t even know basic knowledge for my own job ?!
#43
The other day, a guy mansplained to me that Tylenol is an NSAID. I’m a doctor, and It’s not.
#44
A family friend that is a hairdresser, explained what a mullet haircut was. I am a hairdresser with a mullet haircut.
#45
My friend and I were gearing up in the parking lot of a ski resort and we were talking about sunscreen (making sure not to forget it). The guy in the car next to us started mansplaining different types of sunscreen to us, and finished with “I would know, I just finished medical school”.
We thought it was a little strange since it was January and medical schools typically end in May/June but perhaps he was on a different timeline so nevertheless we said “oh cool, where are you going for residency?”.
He looked at us like a deer in the headlights. I think he meant “medical school” to mean “medical assistant school”.
My friend and I are both board certified attending physicians.
#47
Cars. After I pulled up in my heavily modified, barely street legal, pushing 961hp lotus evora.
Oh really Kenny? *Thats* how a camshaft works? Bigger lobes for more aggressive output? Gee, you don’t say.
#48
Had a guy mansplain to me where I should be moving to and what jobs I should apply to today. Like, big tangible life goals that I should be making on my own.
#49
Feminism, he said women don’t need feminism because we’ve had queens. I was speechless.
#50
Just yesterday had a male trying to mansplain the fashion style I wear regularly AND a fashion style I've been wearing occasionally for 15 years.
#51
That Kraft American singles come in plastic.
He was incredibly knowledgeable about food and wine like me, and over the months we dated we taught each other a lot and had gone to many wine tastings and food-centric events. One day he invited me to a picnic with his softball team and had packed a cooler full of food. I held a piece of cheese up to him and asked “Cheese….in plastic?” Meaning that I was teasing him about having something so regular and plain after we’d discussed cheese and charcuterie boards for ages.
He started with “Yeah, sometimes it comes like that…”. And then wouldn’t believe that I knew what Kraft singles were when I attempted to cut his lecture short.
#52
What a wrench is.
I was working at a high school library at the time and this was a student.
#54
I’m an opera student, and I was talking to this guy about what I was studying at the time. It was a “Pants role”, so a male role, sung by a woman, and he was laughing in my face saying it’s not possible because “he’s a boy! How’s that possible?”.
#55
My boyfriend quizzed me about why brick courses are staggered. I'm an architect, he's a surgeon.
He also recently spent some time explaining how hard it is for children to grow up in broken families while talking about a colleague's son. My parents have been separated for 15-20 years so that was unnecessary.
He's still a cutie cause both times he realised the faux pas and apologised profusely. I still bring it up to embarrass him now and then.
#56
I had an introductory meeting with my new manager, told him i had a degree in supply chain and worked in supply chain for 7 years. he then proceeded to explain to me what supply chain is.
#57
A German man in a bar in Germany got aggressive and insisted that there are native cows in Australia. I’m Australian.
#58
My dad explained empathy to me. I'm a therapist.
#59
How football works. I played from age 6 to 21 and coached for a while. I know the rules.
Michael Largey 5 hours ago
"To coach football, you have to be smart enough to understand the rules and dumb enough to think they're important." - Lou Holtz
#61
Tea.
Friend and I were at a Dobra Tea House, and the friend asked me what Tulsi was. I explained it to him. Some loser at the adjacent table was like “well ackshually..” and repeated everything I said. He was wearing a suit for no reason too.
#62
How batteries corrode in cars even tho I’m a mechanic lol he’s like it’s a big word called electrolysis I’m like 😒.
#63
How to find things on a webpage, while I was editing the HTML code for it.
How to change the tire on my car, while I was almost finished changing it on my own.
How to advance in our field, when I was more qualified and also teaching in the same discipline.
I could go on.
#64
I have lots of tattoos. A man with no tattoos mansplained tattoo pain to me.
Spellflinger 6 hours ago
I have several tattoos all done by different artists and each one said that a man is much more likely to stop the tattoo than a woman. Which is why my younger brother has a single blue dot on his arm. That was as far as he made it. Me on the other hand has fallen asleep while getting inked.
#65
Dad tried to tell me women release hundreds of thousands of eggs every period.
Michael Largey 5 hours ago
Since there's over four billion women on the planet, a few hundred thousand eggs worldwide seems at least numerically plausible.
#66
I once used the word "macabre" in a sentence during a stream. A man in chat said "wow, great use of the word 'macabre'." then he proceeded to explain to me what the word meant....even though he had just commended me for using it properly???
My second favorite was when I was pregnant and told my stream I was going to get a bagel because I needed to eat. A guy said "don't forget the cream cheese - the baby needs to eat too!" ??????? wot ??????? Was the baby not going to get any of the bagel unless there was cream cheese??? I still don't understand this one.
#67
This happened today. I’m invited to talk at a two day conference. My presentation is about how the gutenberg press was instrumental in spreading certain ideas. I look younger than what I am and wasn’t wearing a tag. Two young men wanted to «introduce the themes» of the conference to me. I would have flogged them, but my talk is tomorrow and I don’t wanna get arrested.
#69
I’m a mechanic, so there have been waaaay too many times in my career that a man without a qualification has mansplained my job to me.
Most ridiculous one was while working in tech support, a customer mansplained what a turbo was and how it worked in excruciating (and incorrect) detail, then cracked it because I didn’t know an extremely specific internal measurement off the top of my head. Not only are there many different engines in my area of expertise, across a range of applications, all with different turbo requirements - the measurement they were asking for was engineering level info and not something we would use to determine a failure.
He thought I was too dumb to know what the component was, but I somehow was supposed to know a very specific internal measurement without looking it up?
#70
Recently at work some guy told me how to descend a ladder while doing the thing he was telling me not to do. i'm the safety and security person.
#71
How to take care of my hair. He wasn’t a hair stylist nor did he have my hair type. Tried to tell me what products to buy. Like calm down your short straight hair doesn’t know my curly hair struggles.
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