What is Mansplaining?
By Timothy Tibbetts |
You might have heard the term Mansplaining in your travels and wondered what it meant.
Mansplaining is when a man speaks down to a woman in a condescending or oversimplified way
Over the years, the term has been considered by many to be sexist (duh), so the current definition says Mansplaining can be used towards any age or gender. Those people might not know what condescending means (See what I did there?).
The word splian has been around for hundreds of years as a casual way of saying explain, so you can see how we got here.
Rebecca Solnit gets credit for the inspiration of the term in an article she wrote on TomDispatch.com in 2008, but it's important to note she did not coin the phrase, nor does she want credit:
"I was a bit ambivalent about the word because it seems a little bit more condemnatory of the male of the species than I ever wanted it to be."
Mansplaining is not likely to go entirely away, but we don't hear it too often and prefer to keep it that way. Condescending works in every situation.
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Mansplaining is when a man speaks down to a woman in a condescending or oversimplified way
Over the years, the term has been considered by many to be sexist (duh), so the current definition says Mansplaining can be used towards any age or gender. Those people might not know what condescending means (See what I did there?).
The word splian has been around for hundreds of years as a casual way of saying explain, so you can see how we got here.
Rebecca Solnit gets credit for the inspiration of the term in an article she wrote on TomDispatch.com in 2008, but it's important to note she did not coin the phrase, nor does she want credit:
"I was a bit ambivalent about the word because it seems a little bit more condemnatory of the male of the species than I ever wanted it to be."
Mansplaining is not likely to go entirely away, but we don't hear it too often and prefer to keep it that way. Condescending works in every situation.
Similar:
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