You know how you can be talking about something and a man from nowhere will insert himself in the conversation and give you an opinion no one asked for? That is mansplaining. Simply put, it’s when men talk over you in a condescending and often inaccurate manner plus it’s almost always something you already know. In this article, four women share their funniest mansplaining experiences.
Anike, 24.
I was having a conversation about inclusion in the workspace and how I started working in tech. I went on to talk about the lies used to exclude women. This guy had been agreeing with what I was saying until I brought up ‘syncing of periods’ and how it was used to exclude women in the US Army. He started arguing about how it wasn’t a lie and that it was a known fact that when women live together, their periods will sync.
I tried to explain to him that it was an old myth and many studies have proven it to be false. I took my sweet time to explain and even used my knowledge of probability to try to convince him. In the end, he said “It is something I’ve seen. Maybe your menstruation is different.” This hurt because he knew I did not menstruate regularly due to health issues.
Tos, 22
I was having a conversation about sex with people, and this man said women have only two holes down there. I was like “I’m pretty sure it’s three.” He argued until I eventually gave up.
Ndali, 28
I tweeted that I feel like the “honeymoon period” is a social construct society invented to feel better about reducing the effort they put into their relationships after getting comfortable and a random guy on Twitter quoted it with “study human psychology and stop feeling things”. The gag is I have a whole Bsc. (Hons) in psychology. I said that and uncle deleted his tweet.
Kenny, 23
One time, I posted on my WhatsApp status about how the ‘beauty and brains’ comment men use to compliment women is derogatory and should be stopped. One of my contacts, a man, messaged me to say “Women are so confusing. You women take offence at little things”. I explained to him how it is disrespectful to women and he said we shouldn’t find it offensive because it’s a compliment.
I realized that he wasn’t interested in learning but in explaining to me what we should find offensive as women, so I told him that I understand that if he doesn’t mansplain he might drop dead. I guess he didn’t take it well because he blocked me.
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