Mansplaining
One new and considerably useful word I came across whilst surfing the internet was the curious notion of ’mainsplaining’. What’s mainsplaning, you ask? Unfortunately, I can pretty much assure that it’s something that, as a woman, you’ve come across in your life time.
Mainsplaining refers to when a man explains something to a woman in a patronizing manner, as though she’s entirely ignorant about whatever it is that he’s talking about. Ah, is that a look of recognition I see on your face? Yes, I think that that’s indeed what it might be.
We’ve now entered the year 2010, a time by which time I would have imagined that equality between the sexes would have been pretty much worked out. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and mansplaining and all of its related problems still abound. You’ll find that mansplaining tends to take place most often around ’important’ subjects, ie, subjects that men like to consider their own personal domain. Of course, we, as just a motley assortment of educated and successful women, surely have no idea what they’re talking about. This is why issues around politics, history, technology, and anything remotely to do with an instruction manual is always mansplained to us in simple, basic language as though we’ve never encountered it before in our lives.
In order to combat this insidious practice on mansplaining, it’s essential that women speak out against it when it occurs. If you understand something, don’t let a man think that you don’t. Don’t let him talk over the top of you and pretend that your ideas are his. To wipe out mansplaining altogether, we need to show that we’re smart, articulate, and are determined to have our say. Speaking of amazing women, some thrilling news for you all, I was speaking to my friend last week and she has just got a great new post at an human resources software company. Well done Si!