[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;45301127]I'm saying you should just ignore it.[/QUOTE]
It's easily done, but it's still pretty ridiculous how some people use it and then complain that nobody's taking them seriously afterwards.
[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;45300936]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.[/QUOTE]
words like dick prick and bastard are male words, and I hear those constantly in day to day life
even asking if there is a double standard on the issue seems to make people upset enough to not want to answer that
"Bastard" is an insult of the person's mother though.
I apologize if I seem too aggressive. There are legitimate sexist issues against men. Male victims of rape deserve respect. A man should be able to speak with a younger woman or child without the assumption that he's a pervert. But in language, economy, and sexual culture, men got the long end of the stick.
[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;45301349]"Bastard" is an insult of the person's mother though.
I apologize if I seem too aggressive. There are legitimate sexist issues against men. Male victims of rape deserve respect. A man should be able to speak with a younger woman or child without the assumption that he's a pervert. But in language, economy, and sexual culture, men got the long end of the stick.[/QUOTE]
sure, women do get it worse
but you did say earlier that your genitalia was used as a word of demeaning.
Mine are too, but in this case it's something that shouldn't even be brought up?
It's just a double standard I need to understand.
"Prick" as an insult is identical in meaning to the word "cunt," but most people see cunt as the worse insult. Exactly why that is is complex. Likewise, it's up to interpretation. There are also people who don't see cunt as that harsh of a word.
But debating the word "prick" makes a lot more sense than debating the word "mansplaining".
The only time I've heard it used unironically it when Sanius/Dorial used it, that's it.
it's more idiotic to use than anything. Completely unneeded.
[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;45301391]"Prick" as an insult is identical in meaning to the word "cunt," but most people see cunt as the worse insult. Exactly why that is is complex. Likewise, it's up to interpretation. [/QUOTE]
Nah it's actually not that complicated. In most cultures words associated with sexuality are considered "loaded" due to shock value attached to them on the course of centuries the issue has been considered taboo. Vulgarities associated with female genitalia are generally far more "heavy-handed" is because, according to most studies, the act of desecration/profanation is associated with them. During most of human history a lot of cultures viewed female genitalia as, well, sacred thing, because that's where humans come from, primitively speaking. The act of child-bearing/life-giving has been pretty big deal, huge sacred mystery. Cursing with it implies a lot and conveys extremely strong negative emotion.
It's the same as any other "desecration-based" profanity. I can kinda understand how "cunt" can be seen as misogynistic, but it inherently isn't. It doesn't (at least, historically) focus as much on it being "female's thing" as "[b]mother's[/b] thing".
[QUOTE=BlueChihuahua;45300936]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.[/QUOTE]
"Pussy" comes from pusillanimous and is used against both women and men
"Bitch" is used against both women and men and is not inherently sexist
[QUOTE=katbug;45303971]"Pussy" comes from pusillanimous and is used against both women and men[/QUOTE]
It has been informally suggested in folk etymology that it is a shortened form of the word "pusillanimous", which comes from Latin words meaning "tiny spirit" and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "showing a lack of courage or determination" or cowardly. Though this meaning would seem to be consistent with the intention of the word "pussy" when used as an insult toward a man, it is a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate"]false cognate[/URL] unrelated to the Germanic derivations of puss and pussy.
[url]http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Pussy.html[/url]
The way I've always interpreted it mansplaining is misognystic rather than misandrist, mansplaining is usually done by a person, typically male, who assumes that men are too stupid to understand concepts and 'mansplains' it to them by dumbing down the content. Usually the type of person who mansplains something would be some douchey college dudebro who's hanging out with his other dudebros who, in an attempt to make himself seem more masculine and less intelligent, will mansplain a concept to these dudebros.
To me the term "mansplaining" is usually used to end conversations rather then start conversations on topics relating to social issues based on sex, gender, etc. In these cases it seems like it's used to invalidate what a man said simply because they're a man and not because what they said may be factually incorrect. Now are there times where men act very condescending when explaining things to women and act like they know more simply because they're a man? Yes, I'm not denying that.
[QUOTE=EmperorKabuto;45304621]The way I've always interpreted it mansplaining is misognystic rather than misandrist, mansplaining is usually done by a person, typically male, who assumes that men are too stupid to understand concepts and 'mansplains' it to them by dumbing down the content. Usually the type of person who mansplains something would be some douchey college dudebro who's hanging out with his other dudebros who, in an attempt to make himself seem more masculine and less intelligent, will mansplain a concept to these dudebros.[/QUOTE]
So, that's a man explaining stuff condescendingly to other men? How that would be misogynistic?
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;45304077]It has been informally suggested in folk etymology that it is a shortened form of the word "pusillanimous", which comes from Latin words meaning "tiny spirit" and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "showing a lack of courage or determination" or cowardly. Though this meaning would seem to be consistent with the intention of the word "pussy" when used as an insult toward a man, it is a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_cognate"]false cognate[/URL] unrelated to the Germanic derivations of puss and pussy.
[url]http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Pussy.html[/url][/QUOTE]
To me it seems more like using "pussy" to describe somebody who gets scared easily would probably have been derived from when it was a common word for "cat". You know, like "scaredy-cat"
I think to call it misandrist is just as hypersensitive as most tumblr feminists are when they call anyone slightly disrespecting a woman misogynist. But yeah it's about as dumb as "girl talk" or something like that.
I always assumed pussy as an insult was derived from the genitalia, because the word is seen as crass and vulgar. But I'm far from any kind of linguistics expert.
In response to Katbug: bitch is derived from the term for a female dog, whereas its opposite--stud--is considered a compliment. When a woman is called a bitch, she's considered mean. When a man is called a bitch, he's considered either whiny or cowardly.
That said, whenever someone uses the words bitch or pussy as insults, I by no means assume the insulter is misogynist. For a lot of people, any connections between the words and women is out-of-mind. It's up for debate whether pussy even qualifies at all. I just want to clarify what my point was.
[QUOTE=gudman;45305771]So, that's a man explaining stuff condescendingly to other men? How that would be misogynistic?[/QUOTE]
because they're assuming that because someone is a man, they don't understand complex concepts
which is a product of masculinity not being associated with intelligence
I've never seen "mansplaining" used in any other context than men condescendingly explaining to women how "street harassment isn't that bad!" or similar things...
[QUOTE=EmperorKabuto;45322032]because they're assuming that because someone is a man, they don't understand complex concepts
which is a product of masculinity not being associated with intelligence[/QUOTE]
So... if one assumes that men are dumb, it's hateful towards women? What?
The issue with mansplaining, is that it is used to deflect a mans arguments without addressing them.
Everytime a man explains something to a girl who likes this word, she might start thinking; "Is this just mansplaining? Well he is a man and he is explaining as if it is obvious. So it must be sexist."
It creates a bias against men, especially during discussions. It's a sexist word in practice, in that sense.
And it's an intrinsically sexist word aswell, since it is designed to be applied to men only - even though women condescendingly explain things to men too, sometimes about gender issues and gender semi-specific topics like raising a baby, fashion, etc.
It should be called condesexplaining.
[QUOTE=Kardia;45348070]
It should be called condesexplaining.[/QUOTE]
Or not called anything at all, "being a dick" works well enough.
[QUOTE=gudman;45348095]"being a dick" works well enough.[/QUOTE]
I know a word specifically for this purpose isn't necessary... but making words is fun =(
After some basic behaviorism research "mansplaining" becomes funny. What I hear:
"muh ego muh ideals, im smart please think im smart, i need to be empowered because im powerless, i use thesaurus words that make me appear smart because I seek your approval, I vie for your approval, I am submissive".
[QUOTE=katbug;45303971]"Pussy" comes from pusillanimous and is used against both women and men
"Bitch" is used against both women and men and is not inherently sexist[/QUOTE]
Pusillanimous: Conqueror of Worlds. Staring Micheal J Fox, Jackie Chan, David Icke, and Dave Chappelle
I think I've accidentally caught myself doing it to a female co-worker and I felt bad about it right afterwards. But it's hard to tell whether or not a form of subconscious sexism was at fault or if it was the circumstances at the time (ie working at 10PM, tired, and a co-worker asking a question about something which is second nature to me).
I can understand why women might consider such a thing (mainsplaining) to have sexist connotations, but I don't think that it is misandry for a women to think that such a thing has those sexist connotations. It's only natural for, when you perceive someone to be condescending towards you, to think [I]why[/I] they are being condescending towards you.
Do they consider you as inexperienced? Or irritating? Are they condescending (or not) towards other people? I think it's a thing that needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. But in general, I don't believe that a woman accusing a man of 'mansplaining' is being misandrous. Because for all we know, it might as well be the case that the man is being implicitly sexist.
[editline]13th July 2014[/editline]
There's also the case that a man might not be condescending towards another man out of fear of possible (and unnecessary) conflict, yet some men might perceive women to be slightly vulnerable, to not fight back over small incidents, and so they consider themselves free to be condescending towards women. So I can see mansplaining actually being a thing which women recognise. It might as well be that mansplaining is actually misogyny from the man.
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