“Classmates,” a 2006 sculpture by Paul Tadlock on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. A bronze sculpture of a woman sitting on a bench, a book open in her lap, staring up at a man who has one foot on the bench, his arm resting on his knee, apparently speaking to her. The statue has been nicknamed the “mansplaining statue.”
27 July 2021
Mansplaining is when a man patronizingly, condescendingly, and/or needlessly expounds on a topic to a woman, regardless of her expertise or qualifications in the subject. The word is, of course, a blend of man + explain. The practice of mansplaining dates to antiquity, but the word is quite recent, with a coinage in 2008. Writer Rebecca Solnit defined the concept and its consequences in a 13 April 2008 column in the Los Angeles Times, although she did not use the word; the word would be coined in the following months:
Men explain things to me, and to other women, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. Some men. Every woman knows what I mean. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.
About five weeks later, mansplaining appears on an internet discussion group. Whether there is a direct connection between the coinage and Solnit’s column, or if it was just an idea whose time had come, cannot be known. In either case, a person with the nom de internet of phosfate wrote on the Fandom_Wank discussion board:
Re: On statistics, phosfate, 2008-05-21 03:06 pm UTC
Oh, gosh, thank you so much for mansplaining this to us!
Unfortunately, the post phosfate was responding to has not been preserved.
On 1 August 2008 the following exchange about a performance art piece appeared on the site Livejournal.com that not only uses the word but demonstrates the misogynistic reaction that often accompanies its use:
imomus Fri, Aug. 1st, 2008 11:07 am (UTC)
Yes. “In the first section Shiomi walked up to a water tank on a table and put some crystals of copper sulfate into the water. After the copper sulfate caused an immediate chemical reaction and turned the water a vivid blue, she took the temperature of the water and announced it to the audience through a microphone. Next, while a stuffed pheasant swung from the ceiling in the dark, the four performers alternated sitting down and standing up, with flashlights directed at the vessel. In the last part, they brought chairs to the table, wrote words (specified by Shiomi) on cigarettes, and smoked them after announcing the word.”electricwitch Fri, Aug. 1st, 2008 11:36 am (UTC)
I have to say it sounds pretty lolzy.count_vronsky Fri, Aug. 1st, 2008 11:46 pm (UTC)
You crazy girl. It sounds amazing, and the dead pheasant is just this side of perfect. A sly take on the Last Supper (and the first supper—water into wine), or a time compression of all the suppers we will ever have. An absurdist comment on woman's maternal role as food provider, life as chemistry, and the sexual imagery of the after meal smoke.
Edited at 2008-08-01 11:47 pm (UTC)electricwitch Fri, Aug. 1st, 2008 11:47 pm (UTC)
Wow, thank you so much for mansplaining this art to me! What with my arts degrees, I can't understand it at all!count_vronsky Sat, Aug. 2nd, 2008 12:15 am (UTC)
“mansplaining!” lol.count_vronsky Sat, Aug. 2nd, 2008 12:39 am (UTC)
And I am duly chastened e-witch, and grieved to have offended your petty but obviously sincere gender politics, but I meant no harm. Why is it “mansplaining” and not me just having a difference of opinion and expressing it to you? I mean does everything, even an innocuous comment—an expression of appreciation for a piece of art—have to be seen through the lens of your feminist principles? I would argue that that does as much injustice to my point of view as the perceived insult did to yours.
And this exchange appeared on Twitter on 28 April 2009:
A Lydia On Petze Street @lydia_petze · Apr 28, 2009
Replying to @renward
@renward i don't know but this one guy with his solicitous whiny voice i wanna punch him in it arrrrrrrrrrrghNOT THE BEES @renward · Apr 28, 2009
@lydia_petze UGH, mansplainers are the worst. Let me speak in slow, condescending tones so the Women understand because I'm a Nice Guy.
The word quickly spread from there.
Sources:
@renward, Twitter.com, 28 April 2009.
Comments on Imomus, “Fluxus on a Tourist Visa,” Livejournal.com, 1 August 2008. Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, January 2018 (updated September 2019), s.v. mansplain, v., mansplainer, n.
phosfate, “Women Who Hate Dean Hating Women Hating... wait,” journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank, 21 May 2008. Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Solnit, Rebecca. “Men Who Explain Things,” Los Angeles Times, 13 April 2008.
Photo credit: Satxwdavis, date unknown, atlas obscura.com. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/classmates Fair use of a copyrighted image to illustrate a topic under discussion.