Ladies, raise your hands if you’ve experienced a ‘glorious’ male specimen perform his ‘birthright’ of mansplaining to you. I won’t bother asking any man if he’s caught himself doing it, because who’re we kidding? Of course not! He was just being helpful to a struggling colleague. That’s all. Is it, though?
Problem is, mansplaining, just like feminism is a grossly misunderstood concept. In fact, in terms of acknowledging its existence, it might actually be worse.
Merriam-Webster defines mansplaining as:
“It’s what occurs when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he’s talking to does.”
On the other hand, the urban dictionary sees it in a whole different light:
“Stating accurate, verifiable facts. Especially when these facts are inconvenient to the feminist worldview, or contradict feminist talking points.
It is often used by a feminist who makes an incorrect claim in support of their narrative, and someone responds with something refuting the feminist’s claim, which she (usually it’s a she) cannot counter.”
Uh huh. Absolutely.
Luckily, author Kim Goodwin decided to take the time out to whip up a flowchart that dictates different scenarios and what qualifies as mansplaining and what doesn’t.
My dear friendly neighbourhood mansplainers, take a good long look. Actually, memorise it. Trust me, this is going to save you a lot of “jerk” points.
Kim’s handy flowchart won Twitter the moment it hit the internet and people rejoiced at finally having a helpful guideline that covers the subject so well:
1. Absolutely.
This is a thing of beauty. https://t.co/PNNCgwhLCT
— Ally Condie (@allycondie) July 20, 2018
2. Take notes people.
This chart is everything! And it’s kind of meta since it’s explaining mansplaining without mansplaining. https://t.co/PpANucYqfk
— Vince Warren (@VinceWarren) July 20, 2018
3. Love, love, love the different gradients of mansplaining.
https://twitter.com/fmanjoo/status/1020304511888314370
4. She should write a “Mansplaining For Dummies” book next.
Examples can be helpful to illustrate a concept.
Thanks so much for including so many in the mentions, @kimgoodwin! https://t.co/St2Im9UQCA
— Natalia Oberti Noguera (@nakisnakis) July 20, 2018
5. Oh, I know what my next tattoo is going to be.
Thinking I might need this as a tattoo. 🎯 https://t.co/jCF71glpn6
— Doris N. Truong (@DorisTruong) July 20, 2018
As expected, there were some folks who wanted to mansplain to her why her observation was incorrect, but not to worry, our queen had it covered.
https://twitter.com/Derek_Nankivell/status/1020111288024756224
Ah, the classic #notallmen.
It’s gendered because the behavior is predominantly gendered. You might also notice I don’t say “all men” anywhere…the chart just asks if you ARE mansplaining. And by the way, men are by definition not targets of sexism.
— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) July 20, 2018
This person tried to explain it off as just a case of talking too much. Nothing harmful in that, right ladies?
And all the ADHD/spectrum pple who just want to talk are exasperated. We know we can be bothersome and talk too much to everyone. We know we grate on people's nerves. Why did people go create a gendered term that describes the non gendered behaviour of a group? Meh, I can take it
— Oculporate (@AdamOculporate) July 20, 2018
Hi, Adam. I don’t think talking too much is the same as assuming someone else doesn’t understand things they are actually competent in.
— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) July 20, 2018
Preach!
I’m serious about that “Mansplaining For Dummies” book though. I can think of quite a few people I could gift it to.