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gryphonseggI know there are more pressing issues in the world, but right now I'm a bit concerned about how people use the word "mansplaining." This word was coined to describe a specific manifestation of sexism: men assuming that women are ignorant and need everything explained to them by a man, even when there is no non-sexist reason to assume that the woman being explained to is less informed about the topic at hand than the man doing the explaining. It caught on among the net-going public in the wake of discussion about the article "Men Who Explain Things."
Since then, "mansplaining" has become a popular way to describe the phenomenon of men setting themselves up as the real experts on feminism, women's status in society, and issues that disproportionately affect women. The usage gave rise to the term " 'splaining," meaning the act of a member of [culturally favored group] explaining [type of discrimination they don't experience] to a member of [culturally disfavored group that is targetted for that type of discrimination]. Hence, I've witnessed men complaining about being called out for mansplaining "even when the topic wasn't a women's issue."
Wait, wait, back up! "Mansplaining" was not coined to describe only the act of men explaining women's issues to women. The article that caused the usage of the word to take off was not about a man explaining an issue that disproportionately affects women-- It was about a man explaining the work of a male photographer to a woman whom he knew had written a book about that photographer. Before that discussion took off, I occasionally saw or heard the word used in recounting incidents in which a man explained some simple, gender-neutral matter of everyday modern life to a woman who could reasonably be assumed, based on the fact that she was an adult and out and about in the world, to know quite enough about it. When a man with a bachelor's degree in communications tries to explain an aspect of biological or environmental science to me, that is mansplaining. When a man who is majoring in physics tries to explain something about art or animation Kansan Entrails/Surrealist Dreamer, that is mansplaining. When a man who hasn't been near anyone under twelve since he was fifteen tries to tell an elementary school teacher how to do her job, that is mansplaining.
The concept of "'splaining" as it is currently used in progressive/social justice-oriented blogging is more general than the original meaning of "mansplaining" in that it takes into account multiple kinds of privilege. But it's also more limited in that it critiques a certain kind of prejudice-- the woefully misguided idea that people who are not subject to a certain oppression are able to be "objective" about it, whereas those who actually face the problem are "too emotional" to think clearly about it. Mansplaining is partly about the idea that men are more reliable judges of women's issues than women themselves are capable of being, but it's about a lot more than that. It's about the idea that men are better thinkers in general-- more logical, more thorough, better informed and more capable of synthesizing and applying what they know, more inquisitive, less gullible, more consistent, better in every way. That is a very persistent stereotype throughout Western history, and it is still deeply ingrained today, even though girls and young women are now outperforming boys and young men in educational achievement. When the guys were outperforming the girls, the conventional wisdom was that girls just weren't smart enough to do as well in school; now the conventional wisdom is that grades aren't accurate measures of intelligence because it's all just rote memorization, which girls excel at because they're boring and unimaginative, and they don't really understand or think about things. The point of mansplaining-- the act itself and the word-- isn't just that men are the real experts on topics that make women "emotional." The point is that it's both a symptom of and a perpetuation of the extremely old and extremely sexist concept that men are or should be the experts on absolutely everything and a woman is, by definition, not an expert on anything, no matter how many years of schooling and/or experience she has, no matter how many books she has written or how many awards she has won. I am all too familiar with this because my culture labels me a woman, and I have many years behind me of good grades and academic awards-- and people (most of them male) telling me it's all fake and I don't deserve it and I'll get my comeuppance at the next level, where I'm sure to fail and be humiliated because I can't really learn or think, only memorize and regurgitate, because I'm just a girl.
This is a long (and perhaps overly explainy) way of saying that I'm going to keep using "mansplaining" in its original meaning. Why? Because women can be experts on things other than the designated "women's issues"-- and men aren't necessarily more expert just because they're men. The guy in the comics shop who assumes a female-bodied customer is unfamiliar with the basic concept of the Green Lantern Corps even though she's wearing a Blue Lantern Corps ring? He's a mansplainer. The guy who absolutely refuses to believe that a double-barreled spelling bee champion/lifelong fan of shape-changer fantasy has spelled "werewolf" correctly? A mansplainer! The guy who thinks he needs to explain proofs to a women with a higher-level math degree than his own? Also a mansplainer! And that's not a good thing.
Since then, "mansplaining" has become a popular way to describe the phenomenon of men setting themselves up as the real experts on feminism, women's status in society, and issues that disproportionately affect women. The usage gave rise to the term " 'splaining," meaning the act of a member of [culturally favored group] explaining [type of discrimination they don't experience] to a member of [culturally disfavored group that is targetted for that type of discrimination]. Hence, I've witnessed men complaining about being called out for mansplaining "even when the topic wasn't a women's issue."
Wait, wait, back up! "Mansplaining" was not coined to describe only the act of men explaining women's issues to women. The article that caused the usage of the word to take off was not about a man explaining an issue that disproportionately affects women-- It was about a man explaining the work of a male photographer to a woman whom he knew had written a book about that photographer. Before that discussion took off, I occasionally saw or heard the word used in recounting incidents in which a man explained some simple, gender-neutral matter of everyday modern life to a woman who could reasonably be assumed, based on the fact that she was an adult and out and about in the world, to know quite enough about it. When a man with a bachelor's degree in communications tries to explain an aspect of biological or environmental science to me, that is mansplaining. When a man who is majoring in physics tries to explain something about art or animation Kansan Entrails/Surrealist Dreamer, that is mansplaining. When a man who hasn't been near anyone under twelve since he was fifteen tries to tell an elementary school teacher how to do her job, that is mansplaining.
The concept of "'splaining" as it is currently used in progressive/social justice-oriented blogging is more general than the original meaning of "mansplaining" in that it takes into account multiple kinds of privilege. But it's also more limited in that it critiques a certain kind of prejudice-- the woefully misguided idea that people who are not subject to a certain oppression are able to be "objective" about it, whereas those who actually face the problem are "too emotional" to think clearly about it. Mansplaining is partly about the idea that men are more reliable judges of women's issues than women themselves are capable of being, but it's about a lot more than that. It's about the idea that men are better thinkers in general-- more logical, more thorough, better informed and more capable of synthesizing and applying what they know, more inquisitive, less gullible, more consistent, better in every way. That is a very persistent stereotype throughout Western history, and it is still deeply ingrained today, even though girls and young women are now outperforming boys and young men in educational achievement. When the guys were outperforming the girls, the conventional wisdom was that girls just weren't smart enough to do as well in school; now the conventional wisdom is that grades aren't accurate measures of intelligence because it's all just rote memorization, which girls excel at because they're boring and unimaginative, and they don't really understand or think about things. The point of mansplaining-- the act itself and the word-- isn't just that men are the real experts on topics that make women "emotional." The point is that it's both a symptom of and a perpetuation of the extremely old and extremely sexist concept that men are or should be the experts on absolutely everything and a woman is, by definition, not an expert on anything, no matter how many years of schooling and/or experience she has, no matter how many books she has written or how many awards she has won. I am all too familiar with this because my culture labels me a woman, and I have many years behind me of good grades and academic awards-- and people (most of them male) telling me it's all fake and I don't deserve it and I'll get my comeuppance at the next level, where I'm sure to fail and be humiliated because I can't really learn or think, only memorize and regurgitate, because I'm just a girl.
This is a long (and perhaps overly explainy) way of saying that I'm going to keep using "mansplaining" in its original meaning. Why? Because women can be experts on things other than the designated "women's issues"-- and men aren't necessarily more expert just because they're men. The guy in the comics shop who assumes a female-bodied customer is unfamiliar with the basic concept of the Green Lantern Corps even though she's wearing a Blue Lantern Corps ring? He's a mansplainer. The guy who absolutely refuses to believe that a double-barreled spelling bee champion/lifelong fan of shape-changer fantasy has spelled "werewolf" correctly? A mansplainer! The guy who thinks he needs to explain proofs to a women with a higher-level math degree than his own? Also a mansplainer! And that's not a good thing.
