40 Women Share Stories About Men Who Confidently Mansplained Something Obvious To Them
Interview With Author
The term “mansplaining” is a relatively new one. After first being innovated by the author Rebecca Solnit in 2008, it allowed women to describe a common experience they share for which they never had the terminology. “Mansplaining” went beyond the generics like “patronizing” and “presumptuous” and shed light on a profoundly negative side that men explaining things to women has.
Unfortunately, unsolicited explanations from men who are neither your teacher nor your manager are all too common. But to see the level of absurdity and obviousness of the things women have mansplained to them, we have to look at the actual instances that happened to them in real life.
So when Twitter user Nicole Froio, who’s a PhD on sexual violence and masculinity, asked women to share “the most obvious thing a man has ever mansplained to you,” the answers started pouring in one after another. Both ludicrous and plain irritating, they speak thousands of words about power imbalance and gender bias, which shouldn’t be the case when we live in 2021.
Read more irritating mansplaining cases as shared by women in our previous article right here.
Image credits: NicoleFroio
This post may include affiliate links.
I witnessed an American man trying to explain a Spanish girl's name to her. He was insisting that one of her names was a 'middle' name, and she was patiently saying that names work differently in Spain. She finally snapped and said 'I know what my own name is'. He was also manspreading in the worst possible way. It was quite hilarious to watch.
Bored Panda reached out to the author of the thread, Nicole Froio, who is a feminist writer and researcher. Nicole explained that “mansplaining is one of many daily aggressions women go through in a sexist and misogynistic society, so it has to be understood as a part of a larger system of oppression rather than an isolated incident.”
It comes from the assumption that “women and other non-men don't have the intelligence to understand the topic at hand, which is a sexist and misogynistic assumption. The mansplainer will explain something that the woman probably already knows already, usually in a condescending and infantilizing way.”
I never understood why men feel the need to say balls hurt more. That might be true, but it's a pain that lasts 30 seconds at it's most intense then subsides... childbirth is constant for a longtime
Jonathan - do you have any idea how many women die from childbirth? Edited to add: ~300,000 women die annually from pregnancy and childbirth. I tried to look up the annual deaths from men being kicked in the balls, but, such numbers don't exist. Because it has never happened. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/swift-kick-groin-die/.
Load More Replies...
Apparently the closest a man can feel what contractions feel like is using a TENS machine but the problem with that is they don’t feel the burning, the stretching and the tearing when you push the baby out.
There's a comment on Friends where Chandler said it was impossible to know which hurt more because no one would ever experience both. My husband angrily told the TV that any man who'd supported a woman through labour and birth knew damn well which one hurt most.
Even without knowing your husband. I like him a lot. :D :D
Load More Replies...
I hate people who dismiss how painful periods can be. I have endometriosis so mine are not pleasant. I have broken several bones, fell down the stairs on top of glasses and landed against the wall (opening my skull a bit), I felt out of a speeding golf car and had a lot of internal damage, I have recovered from surgery... Still my top five painful moments are all period related.
I have this ongoing dispute with my wife as to what hurts more: being punched in the boob or being kicked in the balls. We do agree that childbirth is on a different level altogether.
When I'm close to my period, punching me in the boob would be grounds for homicide (an all-woman jury would never convict me). Aside from that, it's certainly not pleasant, but it's also not likely to make me scream and fall down.
Load More Replies...
Some guy once tried to say this to my mom. She said: so being kicked in the balls is worse than childbirth ? Maybe if cut your balls with dull, rusty knife, you can start to compare...
I've had horrible menstrual cramps since I was 13, given birth to two babies, both with and without an epidural, and I am so glad that this guy has cleared everything up. The cramps are in my head and I exaggerated and imagined the birthing pain, it was just like pooping. Thankfully I can share this information with my daughter when her periods start; "the pain is in your head, just stop thinking about it and be grateful you don't have balls!!"
I had a boy in 7th grade tell me he wanted to give birth just to prove it wasn’t that painful.
Well, if he can figure/ever figured out that neat trick, good for him.
Load More Replies... Not that this is a competition or anything ..but being kicked in the ladybits is not exactly fun.
Maybe if the kick to the balls tore the s*****m all the way the a**s and they had to sit on those stitches for weeks, (like an episiotomy)... The guy that happened to, I might think could start to understand
Wow... I apparently I should of said ballsack and butt hole to avoid being censored... My fault for using the appropriate anatomical terms s c r o t u m and a n u s
Load More Replies...
There is a quote attributed to Betty White (true or not, I have no idea) "People shouldn't say it takes balls to do something. They should say it takes a Vagina to do something. After all that thing takes a beating still works good as new!"
Speaking as a woman, I can say that the pain of menstruation is not in my head. If it was, I could just not think about it and it would go away.
Right after healing from child birth, make a plan to kick him in the balls and then...........does it hurt?+
Years ago I've seen a documentary where two men were connected to contractions simulator. Stronger of the two lasted 2 hours before pleading to stop. I still think that he had it easier then real thing as he knew that at any time he can ask to stop and women don’t know how long it will last, will the next round of contractions will be worse than previous, will the baby be ok, will they be strong enough to push at the end, will they rip… Fear is a big factor adding to in pain.
Hopefully, he got kicked in the balls afterwards, no matter how much it hurts.
Every future father needs to go through the labor/childbirth simulator.
When I moved around in my younger years, whenever I heard this from a male doctor I would ask and find another doctor. Don't be dismissed like this, gals!
I know! The guy has to take a kick in the balls for every contraction! That'll do it.
Have you ever gone ahead and conducted an actual test..........for sure, check it out.......
Well... how many men you know that ask for a second or third kick in the balls after getting one???
I've been told that the closest men get to experiencing childbirth is kidney stones
To understand childbirth, a man should have his balls in a vice that tightens every few minutes and continue this for 8 - 48 hours.
I'll agree with the childbirth is less painful than being kicked in the testes. I got kicked when I was 9 years old. I've NEVER wanted to be kicked again. My missus has 5 kids. She chose to get pregnant each time. Case closed.
And many men choose to hit or kick or men in the balls knowing that it hurts....so what's you're point?
Load More Replies... 
Maaaaybe it's more painful. But it doesn't last for hours. (woman speaking with an nine month old)
Load More Replies...
According to Nicole, it depends where the act of mansplaining happens. For example, when it’s in a professional setting, “this can result in the woman in a professional setting feeling disrespected and/or inept for doing their job, they could feel like they've been publicly humiliated in front of their colleagues and feel a general loss of respect for her expertise."
I don't know the situation there and it sounds like he was a moron. I've written a lot of code and at least a couple of times someone told me what it was really doing which wasn't what I thought it was doing. So they were right. I wrote in a bug and they caught it.
For the men who’re wondering about not coming across as mansplainers, Nicole says that simply asking can go a long way. “Instead of assuming a person doesn't know about a certain topic, why not ask 'Do you know how this works?' or 'I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, but if you do, feel free to stop me.'” These simple questions can correct the behavior that might accidentally harm someone.
Even though Nicole said that mansplaining is not one of the worst things experienced by women in a patriarchal system, she sees it wrong because “it rectifies the gender structure on an interpersonal level.”
“For example, you might be a woman in a male-dominated industry where your expertise is already undervalued because that field is male-dominated, and then one of your colleagues mansplains a simple concept everyone in the office is familiar with.”
Such cases can do long-term harm to women. “This can lead to things like imposter syndrome and an unwelcome work environment for women, where people's suspicions about the woman's supposed lack of expertise are rectified by the mansplaining."
When asked how one should react to being mansplained to, Nicole said that personally she finds being assertive quite important when responding to mansplaining. “I usually respond by saying things like 'Thanks for explaining, but I already knew that' or even interrupting the mansplainer and saying 'Sorry to interrupt, but I already know that, so we can move onto the next topic instead of wasting time?’”
Your response can just be a gentle nudge to the fact that you are knowledgeable and that you don't need an explanation, Nicole concluded.
Maby it's more a case of he learned and read up about it and wanted to share it? My partner did the same for our son, not that he was be the breastfeeder xD. But i was happy that he took his time to read up and understand allot of things about having kids. And even if me and his mom already knew things. It's not hard to just listen, and be happy that at least they try instead of not caring about it.
I said something about that very issue to my sister who had no idea of the direction one should wipe.
I didn't even know there were such things as trucks with 36 gears! Does it work like bicycle gears?
In fairness I have met a lot of people who didn't know the political history of their home country. And no they were not just Americans. Some of my Russian students have said some really funny stuff too, like when one tried to tell me the statue on the main square was Stalin. Its a bearded bald guy who is pretty obviously Lenin. And my colleagues used to have students tell them in English about the history of their home town ( Kirov) and none of the students seemed to know who that was despite the town being named for him and us having statues of him dotted around. In fairness I study Soviet history, but they would say, "Let's ask the American" and then I of course knew who Sergei Mironovich was and students would study harder for their next dialogue.
I'd suggest he also go look up infant and maternal mortality rates in Africa and then report him
Do they get a kick out of wrongly declaring things for women? Alternate drug high?
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
In most of these cases, a woman could just as easily said these stupid remarks. It's just stupidity and ignorance, not mansplaining.
It's both. There isn't a term called "womansplaining", but the idea behind mansplaining and 'womansplaining' is being ignorant and dismisve.
Load More Replies...
Just a few days ago, we had a "mansplaining" post and most people will agree that the term is merely a sexist stereotype for behaviour that simply shows a lack of respect, gender of either side notwithstanding. In case of this list, most of these are not even when the term supposedly should imply, but examples of rude beaviour from men towards women, typically not really "explaining" something but merely stating it. Therefore, the whole post is boring but to those who want to be infuriated.
I think the VAST majority of mansplaining incidents are not that at all. I know lots of dudes who "mansplain" things to men all the time. They're just idiots. It's not a sex thing so stop looking for something to be offended by.
Exactly! Mansplaining is like "ok boomer", there's some truth to it but now it's just used to dismiss people.
Load More Replies...
Last time I got manspained I was told that -10 C (or 14 F) "really wasn't cold at all" and I was wrong to think that, and while this might be somewhat true as -30 C is not unusual here in Sweden, the way someone perceives different temperatures is individual. Certainly in the context this was said which was at what temperature would we think it was a little bit too cold to take out the garbage, and I answered -10 C. But uhm, yeah, I was wrong.... 🙄
I am and was a car girl. Vintage Mustangs. Walking into a mall with then current bf. Passed a parked '67 mustang fastback. I pointed it out as we walked past and made a few comments. BF said that it was a '68. I said no, a '67. Another guy walking past said yep, a '68. We had continued to walk as we had an appointment. After some more back and forth, I insisted we go back outside. It was a '67.
I have a confession: I was under my car working on it when my wife came by and was chatting with me... I asked, "Honey can you hand me that screwdriver over there... the one shaped like a star..." She replies: "YOU MEAN THE PHILLIPS?!?!?!?" oops... yeah, that one :)
My boyfriend did that to me too! Like, I moved into your house with a huge toolbox. That you borrow regularly. Come on!
Load More Replies... The closest I came to experiencing mansplaining was when a guy I was riding bikes with, single speed beach cruisers mind you, tried telling me I didn't know how to ride a bike. We were side by side, riding down the strand. I just thought he was a douche and never went out with him again.
Ahh... 'Mansplanning'! I had a female customer accuse me of this and of being 'condescending' when I tried to explain to her that the invoice she was querying wasn't correct. I say 'incorrect' because it wasn't from my company, and I say 'customer' because she wasn't actually - she had rung the wrong company... Still... At least she apologised. Well, she just got unbelievably pissy with me when I pointed out dumbarsedary and she slammed down the phone. Still... Made me laugh!
Not mansplaining per se but it reminded me to a conversation with my partner. His father told us that if we wanted to have a boy we shouldnt drink tap water "because of the hormones turn the baby into a girl". I said nothing about that stupidity because I didnt want to be rude but when we were back home I explained my partner how sex determination works in mammals. He believed his father (a informatic teacher) rather than believing his girlfriend (a biologist). Men can be really sexist without even realizing.
Fire. FIRE! Why does every single man think that building a fire is some sort of specialized skill that only he has!? "You need to put the kindling on first," Yeah, no s**t buddy. "It needs air" Yeah, a child know that. "Actually....I'll do it." EVERY.TIME.EVERY. MAN.
Thank you!!! The same here. I thought it was just because I was a man.
Load More Replies... These posts are idiotic. If you go looking for something to be misogynistic then guess what? You'll find it! I know "I am woman hear me roar." All of you women who get butt hurt over a male attempting to be helpful just put the women who are truly strong, skilled, talented, and smart at even more of a disadvantage. But then, the truly strong, smart, talented women don't have time for this bullshit because they're busy being strong, talented, and smart while you caress each other's asses to heal the butthurt with more "men are pigs" nonsense. Signed, a pig.
I'm glad you signed correctly there, ol' pot and kettle :)
Load More Replies...
I often wonder how to join a conversation without being accused of mansplaining. I like to understand how things work, I find trivia fascinating, and I like to share what I have learned with others... Doesn't mean that I assume I'm 100% right. So what I have started to do with any conversation regarding a topic that someone has experienced personally is "You probably know better than me, but I heard that _____", or "Is it true that ____", or "I'm no expert, but I thought that ____"
I have had things explained to me by both men and women and in both cases, it was embarrassing and hurtful because they made me feel like I was stupid. Anyone who feels the need to always be explaining something to people is rude and has some self esteem issues.
I normally have no issues with someone younger teaching me something or giving their perspective or supervising me, but (drum roll)... Someone young enough to be my daughter felt that I could learn a thing or two about life from her -- apparently, I have no life experience to speak of and she's the font of wisdom. Luckily, I rarely see her and last time I did, she ignored me (maybe because I had earlier yelled at her, "We're all individuals!!!!"). Sometimes, ignorance is bliss :)
Load More Replies...
My ex describing to me, a neuroscientist, how oxytocin works (incorrectly). A relative claiming to have the vestibular disorder that I have had since I was 16 (he does not). Countless students (I am their professor) arguing that my requirements are wrong.
I agree with the other commenters below, that this isn't a gender issue. I am a man working in childcare and I have been 'mansplained' by women from the very beginning. There have been trainees, who tried to explain to me, who at that point had been in this job for five years, how to change a kid's diapers. Some coworkers wanted to 'explain' to me how to soothe an upset child, while I was already calming them down, as if there was one single way of doing it and I wouldn't be able to understand an emotional situation unless they give me a step-by-step tutorial. When I talk to other men in my field, it seems like a lot of gendered issues are not gendered at all and have more to do with which group of people is in the majority/in charge. It has been implied that we 'steal' jobs from women. That we only got our jobs because we are a minority in this field of work. And, something I doubt many women have to deal with, that we are potential criminals and predators.
Some of these are legit. But some would have likely happened to men too. Not everyone who treats you poorly is doing so because you are a woman (or any specific reason), they may treat you poorly simply because they treat everyone that way. Also I find sometimes one may just be enthralled or enthusiastic about a certain topic and start spewing about it in excitement... sometimes to the wrong crowd though. For example the musician who is having thei work explained back to them, it could just be a bumbling nervous fan who will cringe forever at the memory
It seems that the urge to explain things when it is totally unnecessary comes from an urge to take control of a situation. Which men in our society have traditionally been expected to do. It might sting more in situations where women have fought hard to gain respect and acknowledgement, such as careers, or in childbirth, which we were biologically designed to do 😅
Most of them don't fall into mansplaining to me ... It's just obnoxious people. I mean, I'm a man and I had a few of them told to me too (explaining me my code, if you don't think about the pain you would not feel it etc)
Why do all of these seem to happen in US? (live in Europe) I haven't encountered mansplaining from anyone else but Americans. Or maybe I was just really lucky???
Indian here and it happens here! I think it happens everywhere, you're just lucky either location wise, or just as a person
Load More Replies... Gotta love a comment section full of people trying to mansplain mansplaining. It's so meta. And no its not just idiots. It is specifically men making assumptions about a woman's competence and expertise based on her gender while ignoring things like her qualifications. I get it all the time particularly from the subspeicies that is the wikipedia warrior. I'm like hey I have a PhD in Soviet history and that's not true and they will be all "wikipedia says .. . " or tell me to read Solzhenitsyn ( whose works are classed as fiction for a reason), tell me to "do my research" or just break out the insults because I challenged what they think its true. Mansplaining is real and super annoying because it happens all the time.
It's real but it's not something that can be accurately pinpointed. You can't always know if the man made an assumption based on your gender or is just like that with everyone. I'm a man and I've had thing's explained to me as if I were an idiot .Is that mansplaining?
Load More Replies...
Nah, it’s beyond idiocy. What else can we call it that makes it clear that it’s about sexism too? “Sexplanation?”
Load More Replies...
I think what is most infuriating is the obvious overlooking of a woman's skills, expertise, knowledge, background, intelligence, authority, and competency. It's as if these ladies weren't professionals, did not write the book, or haven't already demonstrated their bona fides. Happens constantly and truly, it's almost universal when a certain type of man speaks to any woman. The fact that men have to jump into the comments to explain how these instances are not really mansplaining or that it's simply untrue or that womensplaining is a THING is objectively hilarious, gross, frustrating, and seriously recursive.
I'm 71 years old. No health problems....but! My Dr said women my age, on average, take 8 to 12 prescription drugs a day, so I left his office with 6 different prescriptions in hand....which I tore up and threw away..
I've seen my share of mansplaining, but as an immigrant to the US I also get a lot of "immigrantsplaining" or whatever you can call it... It is when people hear that you speak with an accent and try to explain the simplest things to you as is you just arrived from the stone age before the wheel was invented.
I had a guy ask me to proofread an essay for him. After I did and fixed the errors, his friend read it and changed all my fixes back to the originals. My friend said his friend was right bc his friend was in community college - his friend was using the text book I had helped write and edit at my job, which I had to earn a Masters Degree to have.
Every time I go to my aunts house this man proceeds to tell me how to drive the car and park properly, like turn left, turn right, move slowly, I mean I drove from my house on the very busy expressway but I'd be damned if I knew how to drive on this little street. I just smile and follow his instructions
I guess because I do not know the context but half of these stories can happen with a woman, too. Its just that not all people are as smart as others.
Condescension knows no gender. In the spirit of equity and equality, I hereby propose that we stop calling this practice "mansplaining" and return to calling it "condescension."
Jhfutdytduvhjbojhojh men are real bold with their mansplaining hvugvugcygcygcytc
And I only say that because I went looking for the tweet to read more replies and couldn't find it. Then I realized how long ago it was from.
Load More Replies... Frankly, I've been glad of the odd mansplain when I've not known how to open the fuel cap at a busy petrol station!!!!
whats the point of this article?That we all men are stupid,patronizing and presumptuous by default characteric of our gender and that is the common experience of women who have to unfortunately cope with this alien specie?Cause i take an oath that i thought till now that stupidity and ignorance has nothing to do with gender and we can even be stupid within our own behaviour and thinking as individuals from time to time and different circumstances.This article is as bad and wrong as if the roles could be reversed and instead of men where women saying these or other things.And not fun or light matters bored panda promises at all
In 99% of these cases we can‘t know if it‘s mansplaining or not because we don’t know how these men treat other men. Maybe they‘d explain the same stupid stuff to other men because they’re simply arrogant assholes.
Trying to plan a wedding in a pandemic. I explained to my dad what a challenge it is and getting a venue is very competitive right now. Next week I complained that another venue option fell through...he explained to me it's very competitive right now because of the pandemic....seriously!?
My mum does that to me all the time. "Yeah I know mum, I'm the one who told you that last week, remember?"
Load More Replies... 
In most of these cases, a woman could just as easily said these stupid remarks. It's just stupidity and ignorance, not mansplaining.
It's both. There isn't a term called "womansplaining", but the idea behind mansplaining and 'womansplaining' is being ignorant and dismisve.
Load More Replies... Just a few days ago, we had a "mansplaining" post and most people will agree that the term is merely a sexist stereotype for behaviour that simply shows a lack of respect, gender of either side notwithstanding. In case of this list, most of these are not even when the term supposedly should imply, but examples of rude beaviour from men towards women, typically not really "explaining" something but merely stating it. Therefore, the whole post is boring but to those who want to be infuriated.
I think the VAST majority of mansplaining incidents are not that at all. I know lots of dudes who "mansplain" things to men all the time. They're just idiots. It's not a sex thing so stop looking for something to be offended by.
Exactly! Mansplaining is like "ok boomer", there's some truth to it but now it's just used to dismiss people.
Load More Replies... Last time I got manspained I was told that -10 C (or 14 F) "really wasn't cold at all" and I was wrong to think that, and while this might be somewhat true as -30 C is not unusual here in Sweden, the way someone perceives different temperatures is individual. Certainly in the context this was said which was at what temperature would we think it was a little bit too cold to take out the garbage, and I answered -10 C. But uhm, yeah, I was wrong.... 🙄
I am and was a car girl. Vintage Mustangs. Walking into a mall with then current bf. Passed a parked '67 mustang fastback. I pointed it out as we walked past and made a few comments. BF said that it was a '68. I said no, a '67. Another guy walking past said yep, a '68. We had continued to walk as we had an appointment. After some more back and forth, I insisted we go back outside. It was a '67.
I have a confession: I was under my car working on it when my wife came by and was chatting with me... I asked, "Honey can you hand me that screwdriver over there... the one shaped like a star..." She replies: "YOU MEAN THE PHILLIPS?!?!?!?" oops... yeah, that one :)
My boyfriend did that to me too! Like, I moved into your house with a huge toolbox. That you borrow regularly. Come on!
Load More Replies... The closest I came to experiencing mansplaining was when a guy I was riding bikes with, single speed beach cruisers mind you, tried telling me I didn't know how to ride a bike. We were side by side, riding down the strand. I just thought he was a douche and never went out with him again.
Ahh... 'Mansplanning'! I had a female customer accuse me of this and of being 'condescending' when I tried to explain to her that the invoice she was querying wasn't correct. I say 'incorrect' because it wasn't from my company, and I say 'customer' because she wasn't actually - she had rung the wrong company... Still... At least she apologised. Well, she just got unbelievably pissy with me when I pointed out dumbarsedary and she slammed down the phone. Still... Made me laugh!
Not mansplaining per se but it reminded me to a conversation with my partner. His father told us that if we wanted to have a boy we shouldnt drink tap water "because of the hormones turn the baby into a girl". I said nothing about that stupidity because I didnt want to be rude but when we were back home I explained my partner how sex determination works in mammals. He believed his father (a informatic teacher) rather than believing his girlfriend (a biologist). Men can be really sexist without even realizing.
Fire. FIRE! Why does every single man think that building a fire is some sort of specialized skill that only he has!? "You need to put the kindling on first," Yeah, no s**t buddy. "It needs air" Yeah, a child know that. "Actually....I'll do it." EVERY.TIME.EVERY. MAN.
Thank you!!! The same here. I thought it was just because I was a man.
Load More Replies... These posts are idiotic. If you go looking for something to be misogynistic then guess what? You'll find it! I know "I am woman hear me roar." All of you women who get butt hurt over a male attempting to be helpful just put the women who are truly strong, skilled, talented, and smart at even more of a disadvantage. But then, the truly strong, smart, talented women don't have time for this bullshit because they're busy being strong, talented, and smart while you caress each other's asses to heal the butthurt with more "men are pigs" nonsense. Signed, a pig.
I'm glad you signed correctly there, ol' pot and kettle :)
Load More Replies... I often wonder how to join a conversation without being accused of mansplaining. I like to understand how things work, I find trivia fascinating, and I like to share what I have learned with others... Doesn't mean that I assume I'm 100% right. So what I have started to do with any conversation regarding a topic that someone has experienced personally is "You probably know better than me, but I heard that _____", or "Is it true that ____", or "I'm no expert, but I thought that ____"
I have had things explained to me by both men and women and in both cases, it was embarrassing and hurtful because they made me feel like I was stupid. Anyone who feels the need to always be explaining something to people is rude and has some self esteem issues.
I normally have no issues with someone younger teaching me something or giving their perspective or supervising me, but (drum roll)... Someone young enough to be my daughter felt that I could learn a thing or two about life from her -- apparently, I have no life experience to speak of and she's the font of wisdom. Luckily, I rarely see her and last time I did, she ignored me (maybe because I had earlier yelled at her, "We're all individuals!!!!"). Sometimes, ignorance is bliss :)
Load More Replies... My ex describing to me, a neuroscientist, how oxytocin works (incorrectly). A relative claiming to have the vestibular disorder that I have had since I was 16 (he does not). Countless students (I am their professor) arguing that my requirements are wrong.
I agree with the other commenters below, that this isn't a gender issue. I am a man working in childcare and I have been 'mansplained' by women from the very beginning. There have been trainees, who tried to explain to me, who at that point had been in this job for five years, how to change a kid's diapers. Some coworkers wanted to 'explain' to me how to soothe an upset child, while I was already calming them down, as if there was one single way of doing it and I wouldn't be able to understand an emotional situation unless they give me a step-by-step tutorial. When I talk to other men in my field, it seems like a lot of gendered issues are not gendered at all and have more to do with which group of people is in the majority/in charge. It has been implied that we 'steal' jobs from women. That we only got our jobs because we are a minority in this field of work. And, something I doubt many women have to deal with, that we are potential criminals and predators.
Some of these are legit. But some would have likely happened to men too. Not everyone who treats you poorly is doing so because you are a woman (or any specific reason), they may treat you poorly simply because they treat everyone that way. Also I find sometimes one may just be enthralled or enthusiastic about a certain topic and start spewing about it in excitement... sometimes to the wrong crowd though. For example the musician who is having thei work explained back to them, it could just be a bumbling nervous fan who will cringe forever at the memory
It seems that the urge to explain things when it is totally unnecessary comes from an urge to take control of a situation. Which men in our society have traditionally been expected to do. It might sting more in situations where women have fought hard to gain respect and acknowledgement, such as careers, or in childbirth, which we were biologically designed to do 😅
Most of them don't fall into mansplaining to me ... It's just obnoxious people. I mean, I'm a man and I had a few of them told to me too (explaining me my code, if you don't think about the pain you would not feel it etc)
Why do all of these seem to happen in US? (live in Europe) I haven't encountered mansplaining from anyone else but Americans. Or maybe I was just really lucky???
Indian here and it happens here! I think it happens everywhere, you're just lucky either location wise, or just as a person
Load More Replies... Gotta love a comment section full of people trying to mansplain mansplaining. It's so meta. And no its not just idiots. It is specifically men making assumptions about a woman's competence and expertise based on her gender while ignoring things like her qualifications. I get it all the time particularly from the subspeicies that is the wikipedia warrior. I'm like hey I have a PhD in Soviet history and that's not true and they will be all "wikipedia says .. . " or tell me to read Solzhenitsyn ( whose works are classed as fiction for a reason), tell me to "do my research" or just break out the insults because I challenged what they think its true. Mansplaining is real and super annoying because it happens all the time.
It's real but it's not something that can be accurately pinpointed. You can't always know if the man made an assumption based on your gender or is just like that with everyone. I'm a man and I've had thing's explained to me as if I were an idiot .Is that mansplaining?
Load More Replies... Nah, it’s beyond idiocy. What else can we call it that makes it clear that it’s about sexism too? “Sexplanation?”
Load More Replies... I think what is most infuriating is the obvious overlooking of a woman's skills, expertise, knowledge, background, intelligence, authority, and competency. It's as if these ladies weren't professionals, did not write the book, or haven't already demonstrated their bona fides. Happens constantly and truly, it's almost universal when a certain type of man speaks to any woman. The fact that men have to jump into the comments to explain how these instances are not really mansplaining or that it's simply untrue or that womensplaining is a THING is objectively hilarious, gross, frustrating, and seriously recursive.
I'm 71 years old. No health problems....but! My Dr said women my age, on average, take 8 to 12 prescription drugs a day, so I left his office with 6 different prescriptions in hand....which I tore up and threw away..
I've seen my share of mansplaining, but as an immigrant to the US I also get a lot of "immigrantsplaining" or whatever you can call it... It is when people hear that you speak with an accent and try to explain the simplest things to you as is you just arrived from the stone age before the wheel was invented.
I had a guy ask me to proofread an essay for him. After I did and fixed the errors, his friend read it and changed all my fixes back to the originals. My friend said his friend was right bc his friend was in community college - his friend was using the text book I had helped write and edit at my job, which I had to earn a Masters Degree to have.
Every time I go to my aunts house this man proceeds to tell me how to drive the car and park properly, like turn left, turn right, move slowly, I mean I drove from my house on the very busy expressway but I'd be damned if I knew how to drive on this little street. I just smile and follow his instructions
I guess because I do not know the context but half of these stories can happen with a woman, too. Its just that not all people are as smart as others.
Condescension knows no gender. In the spirit of equity and equality, I hereby propose that we stop calling this practice "mansplaining" and return to calling it "condescension."
Jhfutdytduvhjbojhojh men are real bold with their mansplaining hvugvugcygcygcytc
And I only say that because I went looking for the tweet to read more replies and couldn't find it. Then I realized how long ago it was from.
Load More Replies... Frankly, I've been glad of the odd mansplain when I've not known how to open the fuel cap at a busy petrol station!!!!
whats the point of this article?That we all men are stupid,patronizing and presumptuous by default characteric of our gender and that is the common experience of women who have to unfortunately cope with this alien specie?Cause i take an oath that i thought till now that stupidity and ignorance has nothing to do with gender and we can even be stupid within our own behaviour and thinking as individuals from time to time and different circumstances.This article is as bad and wrong as if the roles could be reversed and instead of men where women saying these or other things.And not fun or light matters bored panda promises at all
In 99% of these cases we can‘t know if it‘s mansplaining or not because we don’t know how these men treat other men. Maybe they‘d explain the same stupid stuff to other men because they’re simply arrogant assholes.
Trying to plan a wedding in a pandemic. I explained to my dad what a challenge it is and getting a venue is very competitive right now. Next week I complained that another venue option fell through...he explained to me it's very competitive right now because of the pandemic....seriously!?
My mum does that to me all the time. "Yeah I know mum, I'm the one who told you that last week, remember?"
Load More Replies... 