So you read about Eadweard Muybridge yesterday! Now this ‘man’ does not have to ‘explain’ it to you about today’s blog which starts with Eadweard Muybridge!
Now you also remember Rebecca Solnit from yesterday’s blog?
Rebecca Solnit had written the latest book on Eadweard Muybridge and at an event, a ‘man’ was telling him about Eadweard Muybridge!
He told her to read this new book on Eadweard Muybridge! His friends were constantly nudging him to STOP! But the ‘man’ simply carried on!
He told Rebecca that she must definitely read this new book which explains many new details!
What he did not realize is that the book about which he was ‘explaining’ to Rebecca was actually written by her!
He later on did realize it but it was too late!
After the event the Los Angeles Times published an written by Rebecca Solnit called ‘Men Explain Things to Me!’.
In it, Solnit recounts the above incident where the man repeatedly explained a “very important Muybridge book” to her, completely unaware and repeatedly ignoring the fact that she was its author, despite her friend’s attempts to inform him!
Solnit didn’t use the term “mansplaining” in the essay, but she articulated the underlying concept: the “presumption” that men’s authority and knowledge are superior to women’s, which often results in women being interrupted, doubted, and silenced!
The word “mansplaining” was coined shortly after the essay’s publication by an anonymous person in a comments section on a LiveJournal community in August 2008. Now we do not know whether is was coined by a man or a woman! Let us not explain that!
It is a blend of “man” and the colloquial “splaining” (from explaining), which already had a connotation of condescension!
The term resonated with many women who recognized the phenomenon in their own lives. It spread rapidly across feminist blogs and social media.
The New York Times declared “mansplainer” one of its words of the year in 2010.
The word was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018, defined as a man explaining something to a woman “needlessly, overbearingly, or condescendingly, esp… in a manner thought to reveal a patronizing or chauvinistic attitude”!
The term gave a name to a behavior that many women experienced but previously had no specific vocabulary for, allowing them to better identify and challenge the underlying gender dynamics. The phenomenon itself is rooted in long-standing societal norms where men have historically been assumed to have more authority and expertise!
So men; you have some explaining to do! By the way there is another term also which you must know! Ironically not from a man like me!
That is “Femsplaining”!
“Femsplaining” is a combination of “fem” and “explaining,” used informally to describe a condescending or patronizing explanation of a topic by a woman, particularly to a man, often with an underlying assumption that he lacks knowledge!
It is patterned after “mansplaining,” but with the gender roles reversed and can also refer to a podcast or online content created by women discussing pop culture and other topics!
Like when she ‘explained’ to you that it is not blue but aqua! And she actually wanted azure and not cyan! While all these look only blue to you!
That’s the women power! Symbolized by women like Jhansi ki Rani!
Shubh ratri!
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