• Is "mansplaining" misandrous?
    52 replies, posted
I heard the term a few weeks ago in some video related to that #yesallwomen thing. It is described in a number of ways but generally they all go something along the lines of: Someone explaining something, correctly or otherwise, assuming you don't know it often resulting in them telling you, in a condescending way, things you may or may not already know. It has a negative connotation. It seems to be put all over the net as something men do to women, the very name "mansplaining" is a a mix of "man" and "explaining" implying that it is an action done by men specifically. There are a number of websites sharing stories of "mansplaining" almost all of these stories written by stories, saying it is by men. This struck a nerve. I consider myself a feminist, in that I support equal rights regardless of sex and gender (and race for that matter), but this strikes me as something which is specifically targeting and type casting men, especially that it only happens against women. I argue that it is done by everyone to everyone. My workmate is a terrible bore and does the exact same thing, often repeating himself over and over. He takes a long time explaining very basic things, often with his own warped view which is often wrong, I'm a man, hes a man. I have also had a woman do it to me when doing a course a few years back, both times it annoyed me and several times to my colleague I've had to say "I know this please cut to the point", though no in those words. I feel like the male sex is having this pinned to it as some purely male trait which is bullshit. It might annoy women but it annoys men as well. Have I missed the point about mansplaining? Why is it being attributed to men, when all it takes to do it is an asshole? edit: would be great to get some female perspective on this.
It's not just "Men explaining things", it's used for when misogynistic men go like, "oh honey, you know that women rely on emotions more then logic, right? silly girl." Shit example, it's 1:40 AM and I'm not thinking great, but that's "Mansplaining". Condescening misogyny.
[QUOTE=Starlight 456;45280412]It's not just "Men explaining things", it's used for when misogynistic men go like, "oh honey, you know that women rely on emotions more then logic, right? silly girl." Shit example, it's 1:40 AM and I'm not thinking great, but that's "Mansplaining". Condescening misogyny.[/QUOTE] That's not how I've read it being described at all. [quote]Old guy at the gym mansplaining me my heart rate. Because my wearing a monitor means I don’t know what I’m doing…?[/quote] Theres alot of posts about it happening at gyms. At my local gym theres some old guy who claims to be an ex lifting champion, I looked him up, nothing about him. He came over to my and bro and started telling us how to do things, despite us not doing what he was suggesting/having better form anyway. Theres always a smartass at the gym and you don't have to be a girl to get their unwanted attention. It's not a guy thing, its a know it all thing. [editline]3rd July 2014[/editline] When we should be putting aside/working around our differences and being more tolerant of each other shit like this comes from both sides and only serves to increase the distance between us and spawn contempt.
As far as I understand its a term used for men explaining something in a condescending manner, but in practice I see it more often used as a throwaway to disregard someones argument entirely so you don't have to consider that you might be possibly wrong.
This is gonna sound harsh as fuck but I disregard that term entirely especially when coming from a feminist. Why? Because this isn't just men doing it, and in my opinion anybody who uses this term (especially a feminist using it) is irrationally biased against men in general. "Mansplaining" is imo a fucking dumb term, it's just "being a condescending douchebag" regardless of your gender and has nothing to do with men.
is that another tumblr made up word?
[QUOTE=Starlight 456;45280412]It's not just "Men explaining things", it's used for when misogynistic men go like, "oh honey, you know that women rely on emotions more then logic, right? silly girl." Shit example, it's 1:40 AM and I'm not thinking great, but that's "Mansplaining". Condescening misogyny.[/QUOTE] Except that's true.
>Is "mansplaining" misandrous? What happened to Facepunch?...
Is it really threadworthy, tumblr linguistic games? What's next, "Are headmates healthy?", "Is demisexuality a choice?" This section is full of garbage as it is.
[QUOTE=gudman;45281289]Is it really threadworthy, tumblr linguistic games? What's next, "Are headmates healthy?", "Is demisexuality a choice?" This section is full of garbage as it is.[/QUOTE] I hate that shit. "Headmates"? 5 years ago that was multiple personality disorder. Or how about Cis? Yeah fuck me for feeling like a white male like I was born, right?
[QUOTE=BuffaloBill;45281311]I hate that shit. "Headmates"? 5 years ago that was multiple personality disorder. Or how about Cis? Yeah fuck me for feeling like a white male like I was born, right?[/QUOTE] As it stands, Cis shouldn't really bear much negative connotation, but I honestly don't see much point in having a term that would describe the absolute majority of the population. Trans*/everybody else works just fine IMO. That's something for another thread though.
[QUOTE=gudman;45281289]Is it really threadworthy, tumblr linguistic games? What's next, "Are headmates healthy?", "Is demisexuality a choice?" This section is full of garbage as it is.[/QUOTE] I put it here because it was mentioned on Al Jazeera discussion on male views on feminism, it's more than just tumblr and as part of the wider topic of equality it is kind of important.
[QUOTE=BuffaloBill;45280852]This is gonna sound harsh as fuck but I disregard that term entirely especially when coming from a feminist. Why? Because this isn't just men doing it, and in my opinion anybody who uses this term (especially a feminist using it) is irrationally biased against men in general. "Mansplaining" is imo a fucking dumb term, it's just "being a condescending douchebag" regardless of your gender and has nothing to do with men.[/QUOTE] This is how I see it as well. There are men out there who are arrogant when it comes to discussing women's rights issues, but that word is only used by crappy feminists as some kind of trump card for arguements. It's barely different to phrases like "i don't want ur CISHET WHITE MAN opinions!!!!!!!!!!"
[QUOTE=Aphtonites;45282184]This is how I see it as well. There are men out there who are arrogant when it comes to discussing women's rights issues, but that word is only used by crappy feminists as some kind of trump card for arguements. It's barely different to phrases like "i don't want ur CISHET WHITE MAN opinions!!!!!!!!!!"[/QUOTE] The only time I've ever heard it used is when one of those tumblr feminists characterized any man explaining anything (not even condescendingly) to a woman as "mansplaining". Basically, as you said, a way for them to say "I don't like you or what you're saying so you can't talk anymore"
Yes it is. The very name of it singles out men as being the main culprit although there is no scientific proof or studies to back it up. I'm not offended though (I am a man) because it's just some hypothesis used by dumb feminists when arguing. And just to be clear, I don't consider all feminists to be dumb.
This is just another tumblr buzzword created to self-victimise and create a problem that isn't there. If a man talks down to you purely because of the fact you are a woman, he is sexist. He isn't 'mansplaining' or any of this other tumblr bullshit. These people only hurt the activist movements for equal gender rights.
The way I see it, if somebody explains something to you as if it were obvious, it'd only be sexist if they were to include something along the lines of "typical girl" or whatever. If they only act like that to one gender, perhaps that would also be sexist on their part, but if they're just explaining it that way to everybody then they're just a smarmy shit
It's a stupid term that's attempting to reinforce the opinion that men are the problem, instead of sexists being the problem (because the creators of the phrase are sexist)
Ironically, the common media perception is that men are the idiots who need to be taken care of by their wives. The vast majority of advertisements that I see show the husband doing something idiotic with the wife shaking her head in the background.
[QUOTE=sgman91;45294369]Ironically, the common media perception is that men are the idiots who need to be taken care of by their wives. The vast majority of advertisements that I see show the husband doing something idiotic with the wife shaking her head in the background.[/QUOTE] It's 'cause marketers know who they're selling to. The fact that advertisement agencies happen to know their market is one of the largest reasons for "sexism" in the media.
[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;45280437]That's not how I've read it being described at all. Theres alot of posts about it happening at gyms. At my local gym theres some old guy who claims to be an ex lifting champion, I looked him up, nothing about him. He came over to my and bro and started telling us how to do things, despite us not doing what he was suggesting/having better form anyway. Theres always a smartass at the gym and you don't have to be a girl to get their unwanted attention. It's not a guy thing, its a know it all thing. [/QUOTE] Wait what. Go find an example of someone saying that this is what it is please. It's when a guy has a dismissive attitude toward a woman (or I suppose a guy if they were arguing about sexism) because of sexist logic and is all "nah you don't know what you're talking about, it's like this." If you're doing it's because you're doing something that's sexist in the first place so I don't see what the problem is.
I don't think this is a thing men do to women, but a thing men do in general. I think we just like to explain shit for no particular reason.
[QUOTE=splitsticks;45295077]I don't think this is a thing men do to women, but a thing men do in general. I think we just like to explain shit for no particular reason.[/QUOTE] i've had more than a few women explain things for no obvious purpose. i conclude it's just a thing people do no point in being sexist about this
"Mansplaining" seems to me like a very unnecessary word. If you're explaining something to someone in a condescending way because you believe their gender naturally makes them more ignorant, then that's plain sexism no matter if it's a man doing it to a woman or if it's a woman doing it to a man. If you're explaining something to someone in a condescending way for no real reason, then that's just called being an ass.
A fringe group of people throwing out the word "mansplaining" on tumblr doesn't really point to a societal problem. How does it actually harm men at this point? Does it just make you a smidgen uncomfortable for a moment? If we're going to argue the whole "it assumes only men do this," then what about the words "pussy" and "bitch" equating to "cowardly"? Unlike mansplaining, those words are commonly used in the real world by a sizable number of people. You can say two wrong don't make a right, but mansplaining has absolutely no power as a word. You asked for a female perspective. I'm used to negative female words. It seems to me that men by contrast have never been exposed to negative male words. Now some have manifested on the internet. Neither I nor most other women would use a word like mansplaining. I think you need to gain some overall perspective here.
No you'd just expect a group that talks about equality as a focus wouldn't try to use sexist terms to boost their own arguments
Again, the term is strictly used by a small fringe group. It has no power.
[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;45301080]Again, the term is strictly used by a small fringe group. It has no power.[/QUOTE] It might not have that much "power", but people are tired of hearing it and think it's just a sleazy way of dismissing people's opinions based on their identity. And it's not exactly a word exclusively used by a small fringe group, some other groups have picked up on it as well.
So why did you defend it on the terms that men have weak skin I agree it has no power but why bother defending it
I'm saying you should just ignore it.
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