What about a man telling [a woman] things she DOES know, because he assumes that, being a woman, she’s unlikely to know it? Is that not a thing that happens?
Or do you take the position that it happens with such negligible frequency that to elevate it to the status of a nameable phenomenon is cult-like behavior?
I looked up “Mansplaining” and got from various sources the same thing as the Wiki definition:
Having seen it firsthand hundreds of times throughout my life, I am finding it hard to believe that it doesn’t exist. Care to explain your reasoning?
Guess someone else had better Kool-Aid.
A bit of straying from the topic a bit, but what about if I’m in a pyramid with a good looking coworker scientist and a sarcophagus opens up and a mummy comes out and starts towards us, is it OK if I grab the good looking coworker scientist’s hand so we can run away? What if she’s just standing there and screaming in terror? This question is also pertinent when jungle exploring and a gorilla jumps in front of us or we are in a laboratory and a giant ant or monstrous alien jumps in front of us.
How would you handle these situations if the coworker was male?
Well, I’d just like to assume that my male colleague would still have his wits about him and would be able to react appropriately.
Right, that’s why you carefully preface remarks to him with “As you know”.
Willing to bet these scenarios are the only ones where you will ever hold a female’s hand.
Paging Dr. Cal Meacham to the white courtesy phone.
I do get to hold my wife’s but yeah, it’s usually only when we’re trying to get away from the wolfman or the flying saucermen.
Just one day late for the 40th anniversary of the birth of that metaphor.
Figured they’d be your biggest fans.
Textbook mansplaining is when a man tells a female astronaut something about her trade: Twitter User Mansplains Physics To A Female Astronaut - Good
Or when Matt Damon explains diversity to a black filmmaker.
Yep, it’s actually obvious that mansplaining doesn’t actually exist.
Something that’s happened to women I know: mechanically inclined female brings their car in for service and gets stuck with a male mechanic who assumes they don’t know a thing about cars because they’re female.
2 questions
Is there such a thing as womansplaning?
I have had many women explain the best ways to bake cookies, even though I have been baking for over 25 years. I don’t think STFU has ever crossed my mind in those situations.
If a man explains something to another man that he already knows, is that mansplaning, or are they just channeling their internal Cliff Clavin?
Exactly my position. In this day and age, few people would assume that a woman wouldn’t know something because she’s a woman. Every time I see “mansplaining” invoked, I’ve no reason to assume the offensive behaviour (sometimes not even offensive, in fact) is caused by an assumption that the woman is ignorant because of her gender. Fort instance, people explain all the time how other people should do their job (a pit peeve of mine, in fact). That the other person happens to be a woman doesn’t make it sexist. It might be that they think she’s doesn’t know how to do her job because she’s a woman, but I’ve no reason to assume so because it’s such a common behavior. The astronaut being lectured about physics mentioned by someone in an earlier post falls into this category. There’s no lack of people thinking they know better than everybody else, why would anybody assume that the poster wouldn’t have lectured a male astronaut?
The most recent example I’ve read about was a female journalist who had been very critical of a mayor’s policies during an interview. Next time, he offered her a book about his town telling her in a clearly amused, dismissive and condescending tone that maybe she could learn a thing or two about it. I saw no reason here either to assume that he would have acted any less dismissively with a male contradictor. You can’t bite a politician and expect he won’t bite back.
And several times, I saw in invoked in cases when there wasn’t even any condescending attitude involved, just a man who contradicted a woman. And as far as I can tell, it’s the case in this thread. A man dared to contradict the OP about something she feels no man can know better than her by virtue of her gender, and she told him to STFO. If anything, that’s rather reverse sexism, or “womansplaining”, I guess.
I think in most cases, if a man mansplains something to another man, the man being mansplained to would likely tell he knows and potentially STFU. It is a little more fraught for a woman to potentially do the same thing.
This one is correct, I believe. But I think it’s the exception rather than the norm.