Mansplaining

"Across social media, women have been encouraged to ask the men in their life how often they think about the Roman empire and to record the answer. To their surprise (recounted in videos posted all over TikTok, Instagram, and more), many men purport to think about the Roman empire quite a bit. … Presumably some of this is performative, an attempt to project oneself as the sort of history bro who can mansplain Catullus."

"Mansplaining is an everyday reality … Celebrities do it. Friends and family do it. Even world leaders like Jeremy Corbyn and Tayyip Erdogan do it."

"Russell: The Chinese have had a bug up their ass about the Dalai Lama since the 1950s, when they first drove him from his spiritual seat in Tibet. To them, hes a font of separatist rhetoric, hell-bent on breaking away from China, so it is indeed delicate. Elizabeth: [laughing incredulously] Are you really mansplaining Tibetan history to me?"

"… In case you needed it mansplained … I shouldve stuck to ballet …"

"It isnt that mansplaining doesnt still occur, rampantly. Its that the term has been thinned and flattened into political doublespeak, with alarming repercussions."

"The commonly cited birthday of the idea is 2008. That year, a portion of an essay by Rebecca Solnit, called "Men Explain Things To Me", appeared in the Los Angeles Times. Solnit didnt use the word "mansplain"; she merely, well, explained it, describing the time a man explained a book to her without acknowledging that she herself wrote it. (This August, she wrote that the men-explaining-things essay has been one of the most reposted pieces shes ever done.) According to Know Your Meme, the word first showed up online about a month after the LA Times piece, in the comments section on a LiveJournal community."

"Men have been doing this for so long and so frequently that we even had to create a word for it—Mansplaining. Its when a man thinks that the sheer force of being a man trumps the expertise that the other gender might hold."

"While mansplaining can be frustrating to witness, its not always helpful to call people out. … Focus on how youre feeling about his behavior, dont attack him. … Personally, you can draw a line about whats okay and not okay when you talk with him … some men who mansplain are likely to think women are "ganging up on them" for anything, and they may see women as confrontational or in conflict just for asserting their right to be heard … any man with that response is not going to be one of your allies as you work to build a better environment."

"A friend spotted this in Texas: #Mansplaining The Statue."

"It was two students visiting, talking … implying nothing beyond that."

"Slick: Theres nothing wrong with admiring the female form… Xanthe: No mansplaining. Slick: "Mansplaining"? Xanthe: You are awash in male privilege and heteronormative assumptions about gender performativity. Slick: Hetero what? Xanthe: Heteronormative assumptions about gender performativity. Slick: In English, please?"

"Katy Gallagher: I love the mansplaining. I am enjoying it. Mitch Fifield: You are loving what? Katy Gallagher: The mansplaining that is going on. … Mitch Fifield: What is "mansplaining", Senator? Katy Gallagher: Well, it is the slightly patronizing and condescending way that you are responding to my questions. Mitch Fifield: Well, I would suggest, Senator, that if you are putting the word "man" in front of some description of what I am doing, you are doing that which I am sure you are very much against, which is making a sexist implication about how I am conducting my role as a man. … Imagine the reactions, Senator, if I said you were "womansplaining". … I mean, I just find it extraordinary, Senator—I just find it extraordinary—that you or any Senator at this table would seek to invoke gender in impugning how a Senator is responding."