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Mansplaining is a portmanteau of the words man and explaining, coined in 2008 to describe a social phenomenon commonly experienced by women. In an article in The Atlantic, Lily Rothman described it as "explaining without regard to the fact that the explainee knows more than the explainer, often done by a man to a woman". She describes John Adams as mansplaining to his wife why men must be masters of their wives. A mansplainer as described by Annie-Rose Strasser, a senior editor at the blog ThinkProgress: "A man compelled to explain or give an opinion about everything — especially to a woman. He speaks, often condescendingly, even if he doesn’t know what he's talking about or even if it’s none of his business. Old term: a boor."

Definition

Mansplaining also covers a heterogeneous mix of mannerisms in which a speaker's reduced respect for the stance of a listener, or a person being discussed, appears to have little reason behind it other than the speaker's assumption that the listener or subject, being female, is not expected to have the same capacity to understand as a male would, or their views are not given the same respect a male's would be given. It also covers situations where it appears a person is using their conversation primarily for the purpose of self-aggrandizement, by holding forth to a presumed less capable female listener in order to appear knowledgeable by comparison.

Rebecca Solnit's original essay took the idea further than the bare concept of mansplaining, to cover its consequences, which she describes as covering many situations where women, whether members of the public or professionals and experts within some area, are routinely seen or treated as less credible than men, or as needing a man to validate their testimony or insights, stating that this is one symptom of a widespread behavior that "keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence".

Mansplaining differs somewhat from many other forms of condescension since it is specifically a gender-related form of condescension and is rooted in a sexist assumption which assumes that a man will normally be more knowledgeable, or more capable of understanding many matters, than a woman.

Generalization to other divisions beyond gender

Mansplaining is considered a patronizing act in gender divisions, and has been generalized to include racial divisions and political divisions, for example whitesplaining, and rightsplaining.

History

The word is thought to have been first used in 2008 or 2009, shortly after San Francisco essayist Rebecca Solnit published an April 2008 blog post titled "Men Explain Things to Me; Facts Didn't Get in Their Way.". In it, she did not use the word mansplaining, but defined the phenomenon as "something every woman knows". Her post involved the story of a man she met at a party, who began to didactically describe to her a recent "very important" book (which it transpired he himself had not read, but had read about in a review). The man needed to be told by her accompanying friend three or four times that Solnit was in fact the author of the book concerned, before actually paying attention to and absorbing the information that the woman he was trying to explain the significance of the book to, was in fact the author.

Solnit's original essay went further, to cover the consequences of this gendered behavior, drawing attention to its effect in creating a conspiracy of silence and disempowerment. Solnit later published Men Explain Things To Me, a collection of seven essays surrounding this theme.

A month later the word mansplaining appeared in a comment on the social network LiveJournal, and its usage has grown since. The term quickly gained wide recognition, and in 2010, The New York Times named mansplainer as one of its "Words of the Year."

Since 2010, journalists have described U.S. Republican politicians including then-presidential nominee Mitt Romney, then-vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan and Governor of Texas Rick Perry, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell, and various characters on the HBO drama series The Newsroom as mansplainers.

Controversy

There has been disagreement among women regarding the usefulness of the term. Given its gender-specific nature and negative connotation, the word has been described by Lesley Kinzel as being inherently biased, essentialist, dismissive, and a double standard. Annie-Rose Strasser states that that the term is too easily misunderstood and misappropriated, which makes it counterproductive in calling out problematic behaviour. She cites the coinage of the term "womansplaining" to describe a woman interacting with someone in a condescending manner as evidence of this misappropriation.

See also

• Sociolinguistics

References

1. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin and Carson, Charles C. (2013). "Among The New Words". American Speech. 88 (2): 196–214. doi:10.1215/00031283-2346771.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)(subscription required)
2. Constant, Paul (4 June 2014). "The Antidote to Mansplaining". The Stranger. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
3. ^ Rothman, Lily (1 November 2012). "A Cultural History of Mansplaining". The Atlantic. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
4. Strasser, Annie-Rose (3 March 2013). "VIEWPOINT: Why We Need To Stop 'Mansplaining'". ThinkProgress. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
5. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118555/rebecca-solnits-men-explain-things-me-scourge-mansplaining
6. http://www.culturalweekly.com/rebecca-solnits-men-explain-things/
7. Jaschik, Scott (16 October 2012). "Calling Out Academic 'Mansplaining'". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
8. Robinson, Anna. "The Art of Mansplaining". The Nation Institute. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
9. Men Explain Things to Me; Facts Didn't Get in Their Way - April 13 2008, essay, Rebecca Solnit
10. Sifton, Sam; Barrett, Grant (18 December 2010). "The Words of the Year". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
11. Cogan, Marin (1 August 2012). "The Mittsplainer: An Alternate Theory of Mitt Romney's Gaffes". GQ. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
12. Stoeffel, Kat (12 October 2012). "Mansplaining Paul Ryan Meme Came True". New York. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
13. Weigel, David (27 June 2013). "Mansplaining the Mansplainer: Rick Perry's Accidental Abortion Honesty". Slate. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
14. Ioffe, Julia (8 August 2013). "Dear Lawrence O'Donnell, Don't Mansplain to Me About Russia". The New Republic. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
15. Stuever, Hank (11 July 2013). "'The Newsroom' vs. 'Honey Boo Boo': Which one really gives us more to think about?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
16. Weigel, David (5 August 2013). "Trying to Tolerate The Newsroom, Week Four". Slate. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
17. Greenwald, Andy (16 July 2013). "Death by Newsroom". Grantland. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
18. Kinzel, Lesley (16 August 2012). "Why You'll Never Hear Me Use the Term 'Mansplain'". XoJane. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
19. Strasser, Annie-Rose (3 March 2013). "Why We Need to Stop 'Mansplaining'". ThinkProgress. Retrieved 22 August 2013.

External links

• Men Explain Things to Me; Facts Didn't Get in Their Way - April 13 2008, essay copy
• The dictionary definition of mansplaining at Wiktionary

• Sexism
• Words coined in the 2000s
• Sociolinguistics