David Mitchell says the term ‘mansplaining’ is unfair

And he’d be correct. It’s usually used in an attempt to shut down male opinions when operating under the arrogant assumption that a man couldn’t possibly know more about something than a woman does.

He’s got the definition of mansplaining wrong but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use the word correctly for years (‘gaslight’ has fast gone the same way) so it does feel pretty pointless now.

The usual woke nonsense, blaming every one of the worlds woes on the straight white male.

Not sure if this is related but I have noticed that some women really hate any form of help from a man, they seem to assume they’re being treated different. What they don’t realise is that most men help each other out all the time, give each other a hand up, hold a ladder, help lifting something heavy. I’ve been in the fire service and it was certainly true there.

Mansplaining is a stupid term, I prefer the term “guys who talk down to people”. Those people certainly exist, I’ve know some guys who talk down to people, especially women, because they think they are better than them.

But I’ve also known plenty of women who talk down to men in the exact same way. I don’t understand why some people decide to gender it by calling it “mansplaining”. That’s just daft, people of any and all genders can be arrogant know it alls who see themselves as above other people.

The backlash against the all the -ism’s is gaining momentum

It’s only unfair when it’s used incorrectly by people who don’t understand the meaning of it

Like any point and can be misused, and from personal experience it’s used when you demonstrate that someone’s argument is wrong or misunderstood and instead of deal with the content of the argument, the mansplaining card is dropped to distract from the fact that they made a mistake/are wrong.

It’s a great word, it tells me who’s not worth wasting my breath on.

So he is a comedian and in part what he said was a joke, but he is right in that men do normally communicate with each other in this way. I’m sure there’s lots of social reasons behind it such as men’s worth being tied to how much they bring to the table (skills, money, influence, problem solving, etc.) and explaining something they know is literally just fulfilling that social contract and expectation.

Dismissing mansplaining therefore is a lot more damaging than it first seems. It’s essentially saying “the only thing that gives you value no longer gives you value”.

It’s always assumed ill or hostile intent, and I guess when you are fighting for value or recognition it can sometimes be that way.

We should probably work on deconstructing unnecessary gender roles or societal expectations rather than furthering them.

But I guess this will just come across as mansplaining and my desire for a kinder world will be mistaken as a hostile take over

I’m not even going to lie a lot of the comments on here from men are pretty funny because a lot of the time you don’t even realise you’re talking down to us- a lot of women will have the experience where you try to joke with a man and he explains it to you like you’re stupid instead, or he explains it in a way that he would never do to a fellow man. Obviously not all, but it happens and denying it because you as a bloke have never experienced it does no good either.

Of course the cis white English man who has lived a life of privilege due to his race and sexual orientation would take issue with “mansplaining” Me thinks the lady doth protest too much! lol

Overall its just an unnecessary word when we already had one – condescending.

I think there are absolutely men who are condescending to women in the way they explain stuff. There are also plenty of women who are condescending to men in treating them like children that are incapable of proper thought. Being rude is a unisex activity.

“Mansplaining” as the phenomenon of “unqualified man explaining to highly qualified woman her area of expertise” is a very useful term.

I would say it’s used correctly like 1% of the time, though. Another good word murdered by idiots.

Mansplaining is when a woman disagrees with a man’s explanation for his opinion; but can’t think of any way to logically challenge it so simply resorts to sexist attacks.

What started out as a man explaining something to an expert in that field / knows far more than the man – morphed into a word used negatively for a man just explaining something.

It’s safer just to explain stuff to men tbf half of our conversations are trying to say the last bit of a sentence to show we also know what we are talking about

Let’s face it. Most people think everybody else is stupid. Most people think they know more about ‘anything’ than everybody else. At least that’s the way it appears.

Mainsplaining. Womoaning

Using those worlds also a way to denigrate the opposite.

It’s only unfair when the term is misused. Mitchell is overlooking the sexism element when he says ‘mansplaining’ is simply boring ‘conversation’ that men do to other men too. Mansplaining only occurs when a man assumes, either consciously or based on unconscious bias, that a woman (who may have more experience than him) lacks knowledge/competence due to her gender. This is something frequently experienced by women in male-dominated professions. Obviously the mere act of explaining something to a woman is not sexist, and anyone who uses the term that way is simply wrong.

I adore Mitchell but if he has a flaw I can easily believe it being mansplaining. He loves things and he loves explaining things, it would be easy to cross over into condescension.

Tbf, for a comedian who’s entire shtick is acting irrationally frustrated and ranting condescendingly, this is an unsurprising headline