Mansplaining & Womansplaining Explained: Meaning & Examples

If you are a feminist, you are probably well aware of the terms mansplaining and womansplaining. Mansplaining is when a man interrupts a woman to explain something that she most likely has more knowledge about than him. In short, it’s when a man talks down to a woman because he thinks he knows more than her. In the business world, women are considered newbies compared to men, so they are often mansplained. Even if it is a woman who has decades of business experience and is more technically competent than her counterpart, she will tell you that she has been mansplained countless times in her life.

Mansplaining has been around for centuries. As compared to men, women are more likely to be interrupted and they are not only interrupted by men but other women too. Also, women are amenable to interruption as opposed to men. They often nod, smile, agree, laugh or facilitate the conversation mostly because they are expected to react this way. Mansplaining is problematic because it reinforces gender inequality. That’s because men try to explain something to a woman in a condescending way, presuming women have less knowledge or they are not as intelligent as men are.

Rebecca Solnit in her most recent book ‘Men Explain Things to Me’ (that’s a collection of essays) explained what mansplaining is. Her book launched a million memes. She, in fact, was the creator of the concept of mansplaining and she is proud that she has attributed a word to this behavior. If you still haven’t got the meaning, here are some examples that explain this concept well:

I had a friend mansplaining to my roommate how to pronounce her own name correctly because he thought she wasn’t doing it right!

A guy mansplained me the meaning of menopause when I was experiencing my 3rd year of menopause.

A man tried to mansplain me what tax deductions are and I am a CPA.

My boyfriend who has never cooked in his life tried to tell me that I chopped the garlic wrong.

How to correctly insert a tampon? And no, the guy wasn’t even a doctor.

Apart from these examples, here is mansplaining explained via something we all witnessed. Just recall the time when Kanye West came on stage while Taylor Swift was in the middle of her acceptance speech for the best female video at 2009 VMA. He grabbed the mike from her and said Beyonce’s video was one of the best female videos. This left both Swift and Beyonce stunned.

It is not just men who do this. Women are into womansplaining too but this womansplaining is different, and it is not as popular. Just like men sound condescending sometimes, even though they are helpful, women condescend too, and men call it womansplaining.

Womansplaining is often perceived as something that is not politically correct. Womansplaining is when a woman tries to shut down a man by shaming him. There are some men who think women in the leadership role are often womansplaining to a bunch of guys, which is true. All of us women think womansplaining is degrading or humiliating a man but do you know it can be used to get the right outcome if used wisely. Usually, when a man explains something to a woman, he does to so to make himself feel better. He wants to be called the smart one who provides for the woman. Womansplaining can be used with a different intention. You can use womansplaining for getting something you desire, making a man believe that it was his idea all long. That’s the only way a man will sign on.

However, to use womansplaining to get a man do something, you will have to use additional tactics: • Learn to master apologetic behavior: Every time you want to share a thought, preface it with an apology. Men are more likely to put their guard down and hear you out even if you are womansplaining. This does not mean you actually have to be sorry, just pretend. • Put up a smile: I know it can be heartbreaking to smile, but if you are not smiling or laughing, they are not going to hear what you are saying. Just don’t let them know what you are feeling inside, just smile through that aching heart.

Womansplaining is an art. If you want to make the most of it, practicing these tactics makes perfect. It’s ok to use these tactics once in a while, but not all the time, of course. Otherwise, it won’t really be womansplaining.

You might have seen a meme about womansplaining already but let me give you a better example: A lady womansplains to men who are suffering from depression that she understands mental illness better than the men do. The truth is, a woman can't know what it is like for a man to go through depression. Men think female supremacy or, in other words, womansplaining how it feels for a guy to suffer depression is insulting.