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Bored Panda reached out to Nicole Froio, the feminist writer and researcher, who argues that mansplaining is one of many daily aggressions women go through in a sexist and misogynistic society. “It has to be understood as a part of a larger system of oppression rather than an isolated incident.”
According to Froio, mansplaining comes from the assumption that women and other non-men don't have the intelligence to understand the topic at hand, which is a sexist and misogynistic assumption. “The mansplainer will explain something that the woman probably knows already, usually in a condescending and infantilizing way,” Froio noted.
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“When this happens in a professional setting, this can result in the woman in a professional setting feeling disrespected and/or inept for doing their job, they could feel like they've been publicly humiliated in front of their colleagues and feeling a general loss of respect for her expertise,” she explained.
“What I usually say to men trying to not be mansplainers is that asking can go a long way—instead of assuming a person doesn't know about a certain topic, why not ask 'Do you know how this works?' or 'I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, but if you do, feel free to stop me?' These are simple ways to correct behavior that might accidentally harm someone.”
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While Froio would not classify mansplaining as one of the worst things experienced by women in a patriarchal system, she would say that “it is wrong because it rectifies the gender structure on an interpersonal level.”
“For example, you might be a woman in a male-dominated industry where your expertise is already undervalued because that field is male-dominated, and then one of your colleagues mansplains a simple concept everyone in the office is familiar with.”
Froio argues that “this can lead to things like imposter syndrome and an unwelcome work environment for women, where people's suspicions about the woman's supposed lack of expertise is rectified by the mansplaining.”
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Moreover, mansplaining is one of the many social phenomena that work to rectify a system of subjugation, and Froio would say that's the reason it is wrong.
When asked about the best ways to react if you are being mansplained to, Froio said that personally, she finds being assertive quite important when responding to mansplaining.
“I usually respond by saying things like 'Thanks for explaining, but I already knew that' or even interrupting the mansplainer and saying 'Sorry to interrupt, but I already know that, so we can move onto the next topic instead of wasting time.'"According to the writer, your response doesn't need to be overtly about gendered dynamics.
“It can just be a gentle nudge to the fact that you are knowledgeable and that you don't need an explanation,” Froio concluded.
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We also spoke with Priscilla Kavanaugh, the writer, designer, and content creator who runs the blog “Bonjour Bitches Blog.” She previously went viral for this illuminating Twitter thread on mansplaining. Bored Panda wrote about it in this previous article, so you may want to check it out. According to Kavanaugh, we have a long way to go because “men are more threatened by women than ever.” She believes that it's going to take a long time to untie this knot and we have to be prepared for that.
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Kavanaugh also doesn’t think that mansplainers understand that their behavior is damaging. She believes that in many cases, they don't particularly care. In order to fight mansplainers, Kavanaugh argues, we have to stop being afraid of making mansplainers uncomfortable.
“There are a lot of great articles about how to respond when you're being mansplained. Find an approach that's comfortable for you, whether it's making a joke or saying something more direct like ‘I just explained that, Jim,’ ‘I think my explanation was more than adequate,’ or ‘I don't think we need to further reiterate what I've been saying but thank you for chiming in.’”
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