# Sexism

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexism/725380
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [July 17, 2015, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexism/725380 "2015-07-17T01:47:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 71

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### Author: ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sexism/725380/71 "2015-07-19T16:49:44Z")

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> [@Dangerosa](#):
>
> A male friend of mine was explaining yesterday how I should react to and feel about street harassment.

Exactly. I think this current OP from GQ kind of illustrates the emotional issues with “mansplaining” with the gender issues removed:

> [@Binary planets?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/binary-planets/725519/1):
>
> The recent fly-by of Pluto by New Horizons got me to wondering: have any binary planets ever been discovered?
> 
> I know that Pluto and its moon Charon are quite close together and I wondered if anyone has ever measured to see if they’re orbiting each other in a binary system, rather than as a moon orbiting a planet. And whether or not it’s true ofs Pluto and Charon, is it possible for two planets to orbit each other?
> 
> Anyone?

This is a perfectly innocent question asked in dead earnest by a person who is certainly reasonably intelligent. But if you are a planetary astronomer, this is going to make you roll your eyes. Has anyone ever measured to see exactly where the center of gravity is? Has anyone ever considered the possibility of a binary system?

You can’t really jump someone’s shit for asking something like this. It’s not their fault they aren’t an expert and that they don’t realize how incredibly basic of a question they are asking, or the insult implied by the idea that something so fundamental wouldn’t have even occurred to you. But there is something incredibly annoying about the fact that they seem to think they can wander into your field–a field you’ve spent a great deal of time and effort to become an expert in–and make some amazing, revolutionary suggestion you just never thought of.

And when it comes to men on women’s issues, it happens all the time. All kinds of well-meaning advice and suggestions that are about like asking if the person suffering from a complete server melt-down has thought about trying to reboot it. And it’s hard to respond to this, because the polite thing to do when you are offered advice is to smile and act like it’s useful, even if it’s stupid. But that means we have developed an entire set of institutions that are basically stupid advice men think women need to hear (think every pamphlet ever) because no one can say “No, that’s stupid, that doesn’t work and doesn’t begin to address the problem”.

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