Mansplaining is when a man dismisses my intelligence, experience and knowledge, disrespects what I have to say, and tries to tell me how to feel about things. If you demonstrate a basic level of respect for me, I don't usually feel like I am being mansplained to. If you have way more experience and knowledge about a topic, I don't feel like I'm being mansplained to. Constantly I am being told what feminists are by men who don't know a thing about feminism - guess what, your opinions don't equal my facts. Those guys are mansplaining. Constantly I am being told how my body and orgasms are supposed to work by men who have never studied anatomy, physiology, or any recent findings on female sexual response in studies, and are sometimes even virgins, but they are just so damn sure their myths and old wives tales equal my formal education. Those guys are mansplaining.
Sometimes men just do not get that their opinion is irrelevant in a given situation - they have no dog in the fight, they have no expertise, they have no actual knowledge base, but still they feel like they need to shout me down with all the angry, childish, completely false things they believe. That's mansplaining.
Talk to me like an equal, engage in an exchange of ideas with me like what I say matters, stop discounting me just because I am a woman. Then you'll stop being accused of mansplaining.
As a woman, I hate the term and will never use it. It's so incredibly ignorant and obnoxious.
When a man tries to explain something to me about myself, I think two things. Is he a professional doctor/expert in this field that I may never have noticed before? If the answer is no, then why do I bother entertaining him with a conversation? Literally, why are you there trying to argue back? There will always be someone that knows more than you, man or woman. But if they don't actually have the expertise or knowledge, then I conclude them as idiots. And who cares what an idiot rambles on about?
Just don't degrade their entire gender because of momentary irritation. That's just your own childishness and immaturity coming out. Because you should be smart enough to know by now that everyone is different.
I think the word is stupid used in all settings. There are plenty of women who act like they know everything just like there are men who do that. There's already a phrase for it.. it's called a know it all. The fact that some women are trying to make it a gender thing is so stupid, it's ridiculous. Plus, how your uterus works is just biology so a man can know more about it than you do.. it's called a male gynecologist. And if he didn't know what he was talking about then he's just ignorant. No need to make it a male problem.
I think it is a stupid term. People discuss things all the time, explain their points of view, opinions, share facts, explain the processes of life.
I see women explaining themselves to men all the time, about their preferences, about how women are, or how men should be, etc. Why isn't that "womansplaining"?
To me it is more like, everyone has a perspective, and just because a person is elaborating on that perspective, doesn't mean they saying their perspective supersedes yours, even if they think they are correct.
I suppose some men live by the idea, especially in dating, that what women say or think is different than what they actually feel and do, which leads them to come up with all kinds of crazy theories backed by armchair biology and anecdotal evidence. That isn't a mansplanation, that is a friggin' interpretation from ONE man's point of view.
The word "manspreading" is what I'd like to put in a category of word usage call "diffusion speak": it's only purpose is to "diffuse" serious debate into contrivance and meaningless argumentation about the nature of speech and who gets to use it, i. e. the only reason you use words like mansplain and manspread is if you can't bring anything of substance to the table and you're only contribution is to simply shut down the dialogue completely.
Better to stop people from voicing their opinions and possibly causing hurt feelings than to actually get anything done.
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In a debate setting, the person who is first to accuse an opponent of "mansplaining" is the one who has already lost.
The word "mansplaining" seems simplistic as a term that suggests that men have a uniform style of explaining when in actuality, every man is different.
Itās a made up word used to silence men who speak out against misandry.
It's interesting because the meaning of the word ultimately already exists, but without gender. You could just as easily say that the guy patronized you or condescended to you. Both of those get the same exact meaning across, without gender-specificity.
I think the disappointing thing is that that kind of condescension from men to women happens frequently enough for a word like mansplaining to exist. Rather than guys bemoaning the sheer existence of the word, there should be a concerted effort to remove the behaviors that sparked the coining of the term in the first place.
Are you a guy that hates the word mansplaining? If so, then when you see men condescending to women, disregarding their knowledge and experience on a topic, speak up.
FYI, sometimes some men will tell you something and explain it to you not because they think that you need to be educated about it. They might already know or expect that you're already knowledgeable. They may just be trying to impress you, or demonstrate that they actually understand a concept you wouldn't expect them to. The fact is, most men have no idea how a uterus works, unless a guy is a healthcare provider or a scientist for example.
However, there are too many men who are arrogant and condescending, not only towards women, but equally (and sometimes even more so) towards other men.
Then there are the men who are definitely misogynists, and unsympathetically so.
It's just a dumb and ridiculous word feminists made up as a another excuse to attack men. The word itself is ignorant and ridiculous
I could just as easily say a woman is womansplaining when she explains to me how it's sexist to spread my legs when I'm sitting down. Despite the fact that I know that I'm not being sexist adn that I'm sitting the way I am because I have balls, balls that are highly sensitive and hurt and cause discomfort when they're crushed in between my legs.
But in reality she's just a ignorant bitch.
Just like any man who acts in an idiotic and rude way is a dick, douche or schmuck.
All you do when you add a gender before a word is cause pointless aggression and set yourself up to be one of those women the kind that everyone dislikes.
Mansplaining a ridiculous made up term used to dismiss a mans point of view. Your example, for example, is ludicrous, men also take health and biology in school. Just because someone is a man you think they don't know how a uterus works? Unless you were talking to an idiot that had no idea what he was talking about, which there are idiots of both genders, there's a good chance he probably knows how a uterus works. Would you like it if men used a ludicrous term like womansplaining any time a women spoke on a subject to dismiss whatever it is they said? The term is idiotic. People are people, regardless of gender. You shouldn't use a term that dismisses over half the population. I won't make it about feminism, although feminists are the ones that coined the phrase. I'll stick to making it about humanitarianism.
Just because you are a woman, and you have a uterus, does not mean you know how it works.
The notion that you have it... therefore, you are an expert at the subject is a logical fallacy made by idiots. Whether it is having a uterus, being gay, lesbian, trans... etc, unless you actually have a good understanding of the subject, merely possessing something or being something does not make you knowledgeable.
Here's a more obvious example...
Do you think schizophrenics are knowledgeable experts about their own condition? Are people with Down's syndrome experts with regards to their genetic syndrome? Are all women more qualified to make medical diagnosis about their uterus than a male doctor with a true understanding of how your body works?
If a woman who is explaining how the prostate works to a man, is she "womansplaining".
I wonder if you even notice how using made up terms by feminists and SJWs makes one sounds stupid.
I think, that itās product of SJW, itās beyond stupid and nobody should use it. And it is also sexist. Where is womansplaining? Oh, thatās right, nowhere.
OK. You have uterus, sure, but that doesnāt make you expert on that. Shocking, right? Now, I guess I mansplain, right? :-D Do you see, how stupid it is? Let me say this. I haveā¦red blood cells. Likeā¦a lot of them. But that doesnāt make me expert on them. Something what is exclusive to one sex only, I hear you saying? OK. I have penis. Andā¦I donāt know that much about it. Now, imagine, that some (female) doctor would explain me, how it all works. For some reason. OK. Iām fine with that. I would never call it womansplaining. It simply wouldnāt even cross my mind.
I donāt know, who that man was, what was that context of that conversation, because you havenāt provided these information (convenient?), so I cannot judge.
I don't like the term
Yes I've come across men who have too much ego and think they know everything and need to explain that all to me.
However, I've seen women do this too.
Men more often, but to make a whole word only adressing men is stupid.
Especially because the only effect it gives is that men who do care about feminism etc are being shut down, because they're afraid of mansplaining.
If you have an annoying conversation partner who only screams over you, find a new one or express your thoughts.
Don't make a whole word for it and blame every man that they do things wrong.
I think it's a funny word, but people seem to be throwing it around willy nilly without thinking too hard about the actual meaning. You hit the nail on the head in terms of its meaning, though. Mansplaining isn't just about a man explaining something. Mansplaining is specifically when a guy *thinks* he knows more than a woman (without actually knowing that for a fact), usually on a topic that concerns women more than men, and he explains it in a way that's kinda antagonistic and all holier-than-thou. People don't seem to get that that's the definition and either a) use it to attack men just because they're trying to explain something or b) feel offended by the term because they (men) think it means they're not allowed to express their thoughts anymore. Both of which are incredibly wrong.
I think the term needs to be changed to include anyone who patronisingly explains something to someone who obviously knows the in's and out's of the process being explained. My female friend "mansplains" to people all the time. She will hear someone explaining something and feel the need to explain it back to them in more confusing and less clear terms. She thinks being as technical and confusing as possible is better than bringing things down to a level everyone can understand. It's embarrassing a lot of the time.
Working in a slightly engineering field I have been "mansplained" to countless times. Anyone who thinks society see women and men as equals in the workplace obviously hasn't been a woman in a male dominated sector. I get mansplained to by people who know a lot less than me about things. It's very hard trying to talk to men like these without damaging their fragile egos. I think the term is sexist though, needs to be unisex because women can be just as bad for it.
Was he wrong about how your uterus works? lol
I think it's used to be dismissive the majority of the time. Basically man + explanation/theory/thought = something a lowly male shouldn't be allowed to do.
It's the equivalent of a woman trying to explain anything or some other concept she is privy to or has any thoughts on, and I just dismiss anything she has to say because she is a woman... and that just simply equals womansplaning... so meh and and look down my nose at her instead of having any consideration for another point of view.
Dismissive snobbery with a (feminist) chauvinistic edge.
I've got a really high I. Q. and I have to mansplain everything to everybody all the time and my absolute level best efforts have only ever yielded the most marginal results in terms of edification.
But I'll keep trying to make dumb motherfuckers turn their fucking brains on for the rest of my life, and like Batman, you never need to thank me, because I may be a martyr for the stupidity of Man, but I am doing it purely for my own selfish reasons of trying to understand my own deep-seated psychological trauma.
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Its a word annoying women employ when they don't want men to explain things to them. I see it very liberally used to dismiss people. I understand its origins came from a woman having a book explained by a douchebag to her at a party which she wrote herself in a shitty way that underestimated her own intelligence with sexist undertones, but I don't really feel like the internet-or feminists especially-view words as saceed in their meaning. Just look at the word cuck, its used to decribe people you have political disagreements with or to describe someone you find to be overly submissive when really it came from a specific (weird) sexual fetish, cuckolding. Or words like literally, uber, etc. I generally see the word 'mansplaining' and get the same urge to throw up in my mouth a little that seeing 'manspreading' gives me. If its used in the right context, I can forgive it, but 87% of the time its purile bullshit. I hate it.
It's rude, childish and makes people look stuck up.
If you don't want to talk to someone or listen to them. Just don't talk to them. Don't need to be rude about it. Just don't interact with them. Just remember that if you can act like that, we can too. I get some men are dicks. But sometimes we are trying to have an intellectual conversation to show we have some understanding of things or to connect on a higher level than just a physical one. But if he is just being rude and acting like you stupid because you are a woman. This is when they speak down to you and very much treat you to the equivalent of a child. Then just cut contact all to get him. You deserve a man that will be kind to you. But be careful he may be trying to show you he cares, by trying to explain that he understands what might be going on and is willing to connect with you. It is ok to ask him why he wanted to explain that to you.
Men think is straight logical lines; women get lost, finding every single connection on the way.
Our brains literally work differently, so we are going to comprehend on slightly different levels, and conceptualize in different ways.
He can see that a room needs painting, and she can see that the room needs the walls tinted with Robin's Egg Blue.
I think the fact many women have found themselves being talked down to and having things explained to them like they're a children, when they have full knowledge of the situation, is the reason why there's now a word for the action. Actions speakouder than words and those actions have earned themselves a name now
If we have "mansplaining", we should also have "womansplaining". Equality, bitches. It works both ways. XD
āMansplainingā actually is when a man tries to explain something to a women because he thinks sheās too dumb to know. Thereās no use of logic on the mans part, heās dismissing the fact that women are smart and know more than men give women credit for.
well, in your example - if the guy knows a lot about the biology of it and you don't, I don't think that would fit with the usual connotations or expectation of 'mansplaning'. But if there is no reason for the guy to know more, then yes, it fits.
usually it suggests a level of condescending.
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