COMMENT At the risk of repeating myself, let me tell you all about mansplaining
Without even rolling her eyes, Wendyl Nissen marches into a battle of the sexes
We’ve all heard of mansplaining, and if you haven’t heard of it just ask a man to explain it to you.
Throughout my career in magazines I frequently had this happen to me. A simple meeting would be derailed because a man decided that it was necessary to explain something to the little women also in the meeting.
Usually mansplaining begins with the phrase “what you probably don’t understand is . . . ”
The problem with mansplaining, apart from the sheer waste of time, is that the little women knew full well what the man was explaining but were often too polite to say anything. A common happening when the man is your boss.
Usually a good mansplain comes about if you are doing something mechanical such as getting your car serviced. Or you might be trying to start your lawnmower. Or you might be having a discussion about rugby.
Basically, anything which is deemed to belong in the male arena will need to be mansplained to you, ignoring the fact that you know a lot about car engines, lawnmowers and rugby.
There is also no way to stop it without causing offence, so most of us just sit and take it then roll our eyes as we walk away.
These days I don’t see too much mansplaining in my life but I do see he-peating — the latest trend which is when a man steals an idea off a woman and claims credit for it. It’s also known as bropropriating.
But to be fair I also see a lot of she-peating, done by myself.
Because at our house there are a lot of ideas bandied about. The crazier the idea is the more likely it is that I came up with it.
The more practical ones usually come from the mouth of my husband. My father has ideas too but they are usually theories on why one of our animals is acting weird.
The problem is that once an idea is said out loud it is then processed for a few days and eventually we decide as a team to go ahead with it. Which is how it should be. The problem is in the claiming credit of the idea when it is really successful.
Our new kitten Milky Way turned into an amazing cat which both my husband and I claim credit for getting, even though it was definitely my idea. The fantastic meal I cook which everyone loves I always claim credit for even though the recipes and the execution were gifted to me by my husband.
In journalism there is a word for
"The problem with mansplaining, apart from the sheer waste of time, is that the little women knew full well what the man was explaining but were often too polite to say anything. A common happening when the man is your boss."