mansplain; mansplaining; mansplainer
And having one of the male character mansplain rape to one of the women? Oh dear.
I’ve had it with being mansplained to by the men here.
Mansplaining is a silencing tactic, designed to keep women’s voices out of conversations – even feminists who, as we know, never shut up.
You might be a mansplainer if you begin a sentence addressed to a woman whom you know holds a degree in neuroscience with “there are molecules in the brain called neurotransmitters”.
Quando, a febbraio scorso, il prestigioso Macquarie Dictionary australiano ha annunciato la sua ‘parola dell’anno 2014’ le donne di tutto il mondo si sono scambiate un sorriso amaro, dato che la parola in questione è to mansplain, verbo che si coniuga… tutto al maschile. Infatti, se un uomo mansplains qualcosa, significa che la spiega o ne parla con aria di sufficienza, perché presume che l’interlocutore ne sappia meno di lui (anche quando è vero il contrario!). E se pure è possibile, tecnicamente, che il malcapitato interlocutore sia di sesso maschile, l’uomo in vena di mansplaining di solito regala la sua scienza infusa a una donna, la cui ignoranza dell’argomento (di qualunque cosa si tratti) dà per scontata.
Origini del termine
Mansplain è una fusione di man e explain. Il termine è stato reso popolare dalla scrittrice Rebecca Solnit nel 2008 in seguito a un’esperienza personale di estremo mansplaining: un tizio le stava spiegando perché considerava importantissimo un libro che aveva letto di recente sul pioniere della fotografia Eadweard Muybridge; peccato che fosse così preso da sé stesso da non realizzare che proprio la Solnit era l’autrice del libro in questione…
And having one of the male character mansplain rape to one of the women? Oh dear.
I’ve had it with being mansplained to by the men here.
Mansplaining is a silencing tactic, designed to keep women’s voices out of conversations – even feminists who, as we know, never shut up.
You might be a mansplainer if you begin a sentence addressed to a woman whom you know holds a degree in neuroscience with “there are molecules in the brain called neurotransmitters”.
When Australia’s prestigious Macquarie Dictionary announced its Word of the Year for 2014 in February 2015 there were nods of recognition from women everywhere; for the word in question is the verb mansplain. If a man mansplains something, he explains it or talks about it in an unnecessarily patronising way, because he assumes that he knows more about it than his hearer does, even if the opposite is the case. Although it would be technically possible for a man to mansplain something to another man, typically the recipient of his wisdom is a woman, whose ignorance of the topic is blithely assumed.
Origin
Mansplain is a blend of man and explain. The word was popularised in 2008 by author Rebecca Solnit after she experienced an extreme form of mansplaining: a man who was so busy telling her about a very important book he had read about the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge that he failed to take on board the fact that Solnit herself was the author of the book.
