7 ms·

Just call it condescension, making it into a gendered term is bigotry. Tolerating the usage of that term is acknowledgement that bigotry towards men is acceptab

by ihsw 10y ago

Just call it condescension, making it into a gendered term is bigotry. Tolerating the usage of that term is acknowledgement that bigotry towards men is acceptable. The fact that you are a man is irrelevant, I'm also a man and I find the acceptance of bigotry towards men to be abhorrent.

eropple 10y ago
Please define "bigotry" and explain, in very if-A-then-B form, exactly how "mansplain" is either an example of bigotry or encourages such. If you believe that words mean things--which, even in today's climate, is a generally accepted position--this might be a difficult one for you.
- jimmywanger 10y ago
  Mansplain means taking a neutral world, "explain", and associating it with both gender and a negative connotation. It also implies that only men can be condescending in this way, and that it's impossible for a woman to do the same. Would it be all right to say that somebody is "whitesplaining" or "gooksplaining" or "blacksplaining"?
dragonwriter 10y ago
Recognizing and calling out a particular common gendered pattern of condescension isn't bigotry toward anyone.
- chillingeffect 10y ago
  ...Implying women don't also talk for long streams wherein men are expected to listen to them. Any socially astute man knows that women benefit from being listened to in sustained streams-of-thought speech. It's commonly called "processing." And if you're not doing it currently, then all the women in your life, from your family to friends to lovers, will be happy when you start. It's a way of showing women respect and demonstrating that you're listening to them and take them seriously. So both men and women will talk for long paragraphs. It's only recently that a small, vocal subset of women decided to genderize it with the term "mansplaining" to mock and dismiss men. It was kind of funny when it was just a joke, but now that it's used to shout down men and these women are forgetting their own propensity for endured, one-sided conversation, it's not funny anymore. But secretly, I'm happy when I hear a woman use the phrase "mansplaining." It's a signal that helps me decisively eliminate her from my social life. Anyone using that term as anything more than a small side joke doesn't deserve my attention.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    No, not implying that at all; thats not even rationally connected to what you are responding to.
    - chillingeffect 10y ago
      Yes, it is. Please set aside your need to be right and think about it: Women talk for long streams. If men were to refer to it as "womensplaining," it would be condescending. Men talk for long streams. When the small, vocal subset of women refer to it as "mansplaining," it is condescending. The error in logic is to say that it's a gendered pattern of condescension. Because both genders do it, it only becomes gendered when you forget that women do it, too. Who is the Zen master who makes the grass green? It is you. You make the grass green.
      - eropple 10y ago
        Mansplaining has nothing to do with "talk[ing] for long streams". It has to do with what is being said and why. Mansplaining is when there is an assumption of ignorance on the part of a woman that can only be rectified (and must be rectified) by a man educating her on a topic, where that assumption of ignorance stems from gendered biases. And it does happen. And the reverse does not happen in any serious proportion--in no small part because of the social conditioning where women would be considered pushy and bitchy for doing so, but where men are considered leaders and experts for it. You've failed to even grasp the topic, and yet you would condescend towards dragonwriter (one of the wisest, most insightful posters around here on a wide variety of topics) about his "need to be right" while inventing an argument out of whole cloth. Tremendous.
        hephaistos 10y ago
        On topics that were traditionally feminine, like housework, childcare or cooking, women can be really condescending. I still remember the tone used by the nurse when she "taught" to my brother how to change the diapers of his newborn. I've never seen someone that condescending.

by ihsw 10y ago

eropple 10y ago

Please define "bigotry" and explain, in very if-A-then-B form, exactly how "mansplain" is either an example of bigotry or encourages such. If you believe that words mean things--which, even in today's climate, is a generally accepted position--this might be a difficult one for you.

jimmywanger 10y ago
Mansplain means taking a neutral world, "explain", and associating it with both gender and a negative connotation. It also implies that only men can be condescending in this way, and that it's impossible for a woman to do the same. Would it be all right to say that somebody is "whitesplaining" or "gooksplaining" or "blacksplaining"?

dragonwriter 10y ago

Recognizing and calling out a particular common gendered pattern of condescension isn't bigotry toward anyone.

chillingeffect 10y ago
...Implying women don't also talk for long streams wherein men are expected to listen to them. Any socially astute man knows that women benefit from being listened to in sustained streams-of-thought speech. It's commonly called "processing." And if you're not doing it currently, then all the women in your life, from your family to friends to lovers, will be happy when you start. It's a way of showing women respect and demonstrating that you're listening to them and take them seriously. So both men and women will talk for long paragraphs. It's only recently that a small, vocal subset of women decided to genderize it with the term "mansplaining" to mock and dismiss men. It was kind of funny when it was just a joke, but now that it's used to shout down men and these women are forgetting their own propensity for endured, one-sided conversation, it's not funny anymore. But secretly, I'm happy when I hear a woman use the phrase "mansplaining." It's a signal that helps me decisively eliminate her from my social life. Anyone using that term as anything more than a small side joke doesn't deserve my attention.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  No, not implying that at all; thats not even rationally connected to what you are responding to.
  - chillingeffect 10y ago
    Yes, it is. Please set aside your need to be right and think about it: Women talk for long streams. If men were to refer to it as "womensplaining," it would be condescending. Men talk for long streams. When the small, vocal subset of women refer to it as "mansplaining," it is condescending. The error in logic is to say that it's a gendered pattern of condescension. Because both genders do it, it only becomes gendered when you forget that women do it, too. Who is the Zen master who makes the grass green? It is you. You make the grass green.
    - eropple 10y ago
      Mansplaining has nothing to do with "talk[ing] for long streams". It has to do with what is being said and why. Mansplaining is when there is an assumption of ignorance on the part of a woman that can only be rectified (and must be rectified) by a man educating her on a topic, where that assumption of ignorance stems from gendered biases. And it does happen. And the reverse does not happen in any serious proportion--in no small part because of the social conditioning where women would be considered pushy and bitchy for doing so, but where men are considered leaders and experts for it. You've failed to even grasp the topic, and yet you would condescend towards dragonwriter (one of the wisest, most insightful posters around here on a wide variety of topics) about his "need to be right" while inventing an argument out of whole cloth. Tremendous.
      - hephaistos 10y ago
        On topics that were traditionally feminine, like housework, childcare or cooking, women can be really condescending. I still remember the tone used by the nurse when she "taught" to my brother how to change the diapers of his newborn. I've never seen someone that condescending.