Is husband a ‘mansplainer’ or just merely being verbose?

Dear Carolyn: My husband has a tendency to “mansplain.”

Recently, when I asked him if he had heard of any U.S. military action planned against North Korea, he began his response by telling me the name of the leader of North Korea, the fact that they have been doing nuclear weapons testing, who Rex Tillerson is, etc., all of which I knew already and wasn’t really the answer to my question, was it?

When I call him on it by commenting that he is mansplaining, he becomes angry and says he only knows one way to talk. Am I wrong to call him on this?— T.

Depends on how you define “call him on this.”

If it means saying to him, “When you give me all that background information, I feel like I’m back in kindergarten” — and asking that he please assume you have knowledge of geopolitical basics — then it is not wrong.

If instead it means using the lingo du jour to call him a patronizing sexist blowhard, then, yes, that is wrong.

Not that the facts of the accusation are wrong, necessarily; he may be all of those things. Or not. I don’t know.

But you’re supposed to be life partners: Slapping a label on him is not the most constructive way to improve that bond, or to make your point.

It is arguably an act of kindness to let a partner know when a habit of his risks alienating you. That’s communication couples need. If integrity permits you to add, “I don’t think you do it on purpose,” then, even better. It helps to show you’re not assuming the worst of him in raising the issue.

What doesn’t help is to assume the worst, to ascribe motives to him without giving him room to say otherwise. A “mansplaining” charge assumes he overexplains because he thinks you’re ignorant, and thinks you’re ignorant because you’re a woman — when there are other possible explanations. Right? Couldn’t he just be a plodding, methodical guy? A blowhard without a cause?

Consider whether he talks this way just to you, just to women, just to people he might regard as subordinate. Are his male peers and superiors subject to the same lecture format?

These may seem like common-sense points for the person who married and lives with him, but sometimes there are things we don’t see unless we make a conscious effort to look.