"OK. For every bro who has EVER taken issue with the term MANSPLAINING. Bros. Here it is."

[betsuni]

187. Thanks. I quoted Solnit from her book in an above comment but didn't think to find a link!

"A website named 'Academic Men Explain Things to Me' arose, and hundreds of university women shared their stories of being patronized, belittled, talked over, and more. The term 'mansplaining' was coined soon after the piece appeared, and I was sometimes credited with it. In fact, I had nothing to do with its actual creation, though my essay, along with all the men who embodied the idea, apparently inspired it. (I have doubts about the word and don't use it myself much, it seems to me to go a little heavy on the idea that men are inherently flawed this way, rather than that some men explain things they shouldn't and don't hear things they should. If it's not clear enough in the piece, I love it when people explain things to me they know and I'm interested in but don't yet know; it's when they explain things to me I know and they don't that the conversation goes wrong.) By 2012, the term 'mansplained' -- one of the New York Times's words of the year for 2010 -- was being used in mainstream political journalism. Alas, this was because it dovetailed pretty well with the times."

What I used to get a lot when younger was men asking me if I knew the meaning of words. The big, hard words with more than a couple syllables. As if I were a child or a non-native speaker of the language. I think I looked even dumber than I actually am. Thank you ever so, Mr. Dictionary.