This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Sue Gardner (talk | contribs) at 05:21, 21 August 2013 (new article on mansplaining with a dozen or so sources). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 05:21, 21 August 2013 by Sue Gardner (talk | contribs) (new article on mansplaining with a dozen or so sources)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Mansplaining is a portmanteau of the words "man" and "explaining" that describes the act of a man speaking to a woman on the assumption that she knows less than he does about the topic being discussed, even if it is obvious that she knows more. In 2010 it was named by the New York Times as one of its "Words of the Year." Mansplaining is different from other forms of condescension because mansplaining is rooted in the assumption that, in general, a man is likelier to be knowledgeable than a woman.
The word is thought to have been first used in 2008 or 2009, shortly after San Francisco author Rebecca Solnit published an April 2008 blog post titled "Men Explain Things to Me." In it, she did not use the word mansplaining, but defined the phenomenon as "something every woman knows," telling the story of a man at a party lengthily describing to her a recent "very important" book, and needing to be told three or four times before taking in that Solnit was in fact its author. Mansplaining is rooted in a "presumption," Solnit wrote, "that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; 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."
A month later the word mansplaining appeared in a comment on the social network LiveJournal, and its usage has grown since. Since 2010, journalists have described as mansplaining 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.
- Strasser, Annie-Rose (3 March 2013). "VIEWPOINT: Why We Need To Stop 'Mansplaining'". Think Progress. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Sifton and Grant Barrett, Sam (18 December 2010). "The Words of the Year". New York Times. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Robinson, Anna. "The Art of Mansplaining". The Nation. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Jaschik, Scott (16 October 2012). "Calling Out Academic 'Mansplaining'". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Rothman, Lily (1 November 2012). "A Cultural History of Mansplaining". The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Cogan, Marin (1 August 2012). "The Mittsplainer: An Alternate Theory of Mitt Romney's Gaffes". GQ magazine. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
- Stoeffel, Kat (12 October 2012). "Mansplaining Paul Ryan Meme Came True". New York magazine. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Wiegel, David (27 June 2013). "Mansplaining the Mansplainer: Rick Perry's Accidental Abortion Honesty". Slate. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Ioffe, Julia (8 August 2013). "Dear Lawrence O'Donnell, Don't Mansplain to Me About Russia". New Republic magazine. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
- Stuever, Hank (11 July 2013). "'The Newsroom' vs. 'Honey Boo Boo': Which one really gives us more to think about?". Washington Post. Retrieved 20 August 2013.