Familiar with the word “mansplain?” Of course you are. The term is one that tends to pop up everywhere, from reporting on the Supreme Court to Harry Styles thinkpieces to advice columns. It’s so prevalent, in fact, that in 2014, it was officially added to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Of course, it is worth noting that, at this point, “mansplaining” has become a phrase so overblown and overexposed (as put by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “it’s so broadly applied that some say that any time a man opens his mouth he’s accused of mansplaining”) that it’s basically meaningless. Saying that someone is “mansplaining” to you, or is a “mansplainer” doesn’t really have the same argumentative heft that it might have, say, two years ago, simply because it’s been used so often in situations that don’t really apply. Still, if you are a girl, it is all but guaranteed that you have or will, at some point, encounter mansplaining in some form in the wild. And for that, a girl must be prepared! So, check out these truly terrible examples of mansplaining that you just have to see to believe:
1. Here’s a, um, classic:
2. Never:
Once I wore my #EqualPlayEqualPay shirt to the gym and a dude tried to mansplain why it was fair the USWNT made less than USMNT. #nope pic.twitter.com/N3ycn27nJg
— ?Allie? (@alliegpls) April 4, 2017
3. Never go to parties, either:
Source
4. Or online:
5. NEVER DO ANYTHING:
6. Gah:
@lizzieohreally @biocuriosity @brokeymcpoverty once a man tried to explain an article to me. An article I wrote.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) March 21, 2017
7. (This is pretty common, actually):
8. NO:
9. If you feel like men don’t take you and your bodily needs seriously…
@brokeymcpoverty a pharmacist (man) told me I was choosing the wrong kind of painkiller for cramps.
So I asked him what he takes for his.
— ryan (@ryanmchristen) March 21, 2017
10. It’s probably because they don’t:
11. Haha?
@brokeymcpoverty in college my friends and i ran an indie mag out of our editors apartment and a guy said i was using the word "indie" wrong
— Anna Fitzpatrick (@bananafitz) March 21, 2017
12. This is…very common:
Some weedy guy in the gym tried to mansplain deadlifts to me and he was doing them completely wrong, awks ✋??
— Sarah Colee (@Sarah_Colee) January 31, 2017
13. If you’ve been looking for an excuse not to do your homework, HERE IT IS:
14. Who hurt this person??
@brokeymcpoverty I once had a friend mansplain to my roommate how to ~correctly~ pronounce her own name bc he thought she was doing it wrong
— Aja Romano (@ajaromano) March 21, 2017
15. Haha. Goodbye!!!!
@brokeymcpoverty I recently had a guy mansplain pregnancy to me & 3 other women, 1 of whom has 4 kids. Miraculously he's still alive.
— Lauren Abramo (@LaurenAbramo) March 21, 2017
Have you ever encountered mansplaining IRL? Was is anything like this? Let us know in the comments!
You can reach the author, Sara Hendricks, on Twitter and Instagram.
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