Mansplainig: When They Explain Things To Us That We Don’t Ask For

The fact that the word mansplaining has been one of the most searched on Google in recent years is no coincidence. When they explain things to us that we already know (or that we are experts in) it is not just a waste of time. It is also a way of underestimating and silencing us from those who seek to exercise their intellectual superiority at all costs.

Interestingly, this phenomenon is a fact that women know very well and live daily. After all, the term mansplaining or its first cousins ​​” manspreading” or “manologue”  are nothing more than Anglophone neologisms to define a dynamic that appears frequently. It is when a man acts condescending or patronizing by explaining something to a woman that she already knows.

We could say that this is something that women also do; can be. We could in turn point out that it is a dynamic that men also practice among themselves; It’s true. But the truth is that the evidence is there, the mansplaining is a reality most often exercised by men over women.

An example, in 2018, Kim Goodwin, a Twitter user shared a graphic on this network on how to identify mansplaining . He did it before a demand from his colleagues (men) who wanted to know in what moments and situations he derived in that condescending behavior.

That publication became viral and once again revealed a reality that has a genre.

Let me explain what mansplaining is …

It is not a buzzword; there is research behind it. It is not a whim, a misinterpretation or a way to negatively judge the behavior of some men. The mansplaining began to be studied in the late 90s trying to understand the impact of interruptions during conversations between men and women (Anderson and Leaper. 1998).

It was in 2008 when the description of mansplaining appeared for the first time through multiple articles, the most famous being the one published by the writer Rebecca Solnit in the Los Angeles Times magazine under the now famous title Men explain things to me . Now, despite the repercussions of this reality, there is an undeniable fact. Beyond this being a new term, it describes something that is really old.

The mansplaining is an invitation to silence

Academic literature has been documenting gender power differences in verbal interaction for decades. In this way, a series of dynamics occurs that, on average, are carried out to a greater degree by men than women. They are as follows:

• It is more common for men to intrusively interrupt their conversation with a woman (Anderson & Leaper, 1998).

• On the other hand, the mansplaining occurs most frequently in the public sphere or in the workplace. They are places that, traditionally, have always belonged to the male gender. This means that in many cases it is overlooked that a woman knows as much about physics, medicine, biotechnology, genetics, robotics, etc., as a man. Despite this, there are many who do not hesitate to explain data, details, aspects and information that women know and master more than enough.
• What this behavior actually carries out is not listening to the woman, not validating her opinions and, in turn, explaining again what she has previously pointed out or already knows.
• With this, some men seek to impose their intellectual superiority, “inviting” them to keep silence and inhibit themselves.

The mansplaining minimized and infantilises the role of women in the exercised paternalistic and move it to the background. Thus, when a man explains something to a woman in a condescending way, he is reinforcing (willingly or unwillingly) gender stereotypes about their supposed lower knowledge and intellectual capacity.

I do not do that! (are you sure?)

“I do not do”, “it is that you can no longer talk to women without Tilden us chauvinist?” “But let’s see, if I domino and know a topic would not have the right to discuss it with a woman? ”.  These are the most common comments that men usually make when talking about mansplaining . The truth is that it is a long controversial issue. For this reason, it is important to clarify a series of aspects.

Explaining is not the same as commenting

The most important thing is to know how to differentiate an explanation from a talk in which to comment on something specific. It is not the same to explain, for example, to an astronomer what binary stars are or why black holes exist than to have a fluid conversation with her in which to talk and listen to each other without being a doctrinaire monologue.

Have they asked you for an explanation about something specific? So don’t give yours

You should not give advice to someone who does not ask for it, nor should you give explanations to someone who does not need or demand it. This is the first key to avoid falling into free mansplaining . Although this principle can be applied to any area, it is something that usually occurs between men and women.

Suddenly, they can find themselves in the situation that a coworker, friend, neighbor or any stranger begins to give them lessons, suggestions and guidelines on a specific topic.

Ask yourself if the person in front of you knows about this topic as much or more than you do.

Rebecca Solnit, the author of the article that went viral in 2008 and which generated the term mansplaining , describes a situation that she herself experienced at a party. He met a man who began to explain his own book (the one Solnit had written) to him. As striking as it may seem, there are very similar situations on a day-to-day basis.

There are men who, almost unconsciously, explain topics to women without wondering if they already know that topic well or if they are more expert than themselves. Few things are more dangerous than taking certain things for granted, like not asking first who the person in front of us is.

To conclude, only one aspect can be qualified. The mainsplaining is not a dynamic that defines absolutely all men. In fact, more and more supporters of gender equality are fully aware of such denigrating realities.