Women of Twitter share their most annoying mansplaining stories
I wrote a story about mansplaining the other day, and a man quickly came to my Facebook page to mansplain why I shouldn’t get angry about mansplaining. “Where is it written that men must stay silent,” he asked. “When straight white guys are regularly shut down with phrases like ‘mansplaining’ and ‘white privilege,’ is there any way to interpret that, other than pure censorship?”
Well, you could actually LISTEN, instead of “interpret.” You could understand that privilege is real and mansplaining is annoying — and just STFU for five minutes. But I digress.
This week, Tracy Clayton — writer and host of Buzzfeed’s podcast Another Round — tweeted about a Lyft driver who mansplained to her what an airport terminal was:
MY FUCKING LYFT DRIVER KEEPS EXPLAINING TO ME WHAT A GOTDAMN AIRPORT TERMINAL IS AND I AM GOING TO FLIP
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) March 21, 2017
I KNOW WHAT A TERMINAL IS AND I KNOW WHAT AN AIRPORT IS AND I KNOW WHAT AN AIRPLANE DOES AND IM OLDER THAN YOU ARE
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) March 21, 2017
We’ve all been there, unfortunately. Some random man explains some shit to us that we already know, we get angry, resting bitch face appears, and we’re the bad guys. As a wise refrigerator magnet once said, “When men stop being assholes, I’ll stop being a bitch.”
Anyway, Clayton decided to ask the women of Twitter what their most infuriating mansplaining experiences were.
women, what's the most infuriating thing you've had mansplained to you?
— Tracy Clayton (@brokeymcpoverty) March 21, 2017
You could wallpaper Trump Tower with these tweets — that’s how many there are. Because mansplaining is a plague on our land, and we endure it daily.
@brokeymcpoverty Vocal “gravitas,” so my voice matches the content. In a letter about my show. Which I write, host and created.
— Lizzie O’Leary (@lizzieohreally) March 21, 2017
@lizzieohreally @biocuriosity @brokeymcpoverty once a man tried to explain an article to me. An article I wrote.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty The number of men who have explained to me how the television and movie businesses work is literally too large to count.
— Linda Holmes (@nprmonkeysee) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty True story. I was WH waiting meet w/Pres. Obama. Man explains to me: “If you want to succeed you sd learn abt sports.
— Angela Blanchard (@CajunAngela) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty dude in workshop tried to tell me my description of orgasm was “gratuitous” because women’s orgasms don’t work like that 🙃
— Rachel Charlene (@RachelCharleneL) March 21, 2017
LOL, FOREVER.
.@brokeymcpoverty Recently? Office dude came in to move my phone, mocking me bc he thought I didn’t know how. I said the cable’s too short..
— ⚾ MHarvey ⚾ (@mharvey816) March 21, 2017
.@brokeymcpoverty But as he’s unplugging it to move, he stops and hollers “who puts in a cable this short?” I just smiled & sipped my cocoa.
— ⚾ MHarvey ⚾ (@mharvey816) March 21, 2017
That’s it. We definitely need a “smiling and sipping our cocoa” emoji.
@brokeymcpoverty 1) Man1 hears my ideas; Man1 speaks to Man2 & shares my phrasing/ideas. Man2 writes up memo crediting my words to Man1…
— Amy O’Leary (@amyoleary) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty 2) Man3 holds a meeting, reads off memo, quoting me back to me to explain how I should do my new job.
— Amy O’Leary (@amyoleary) March 21, 2017
@tamerra_nikol @brokeymcpoverty I was told there was “no such thing as an accidentally pregnancy” because birth control exists.
— AliciaMelville-Smith (@alicia_ms) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty I once had a friend mansplain to my roommate how to ~correctly~ pronounce her own name bc he thought she was doing it wrong
— Aja Romano (@ajaromano) March 21, 2017
You really can’t make this stuff up.
@brokeymcpoverty in college my friends and i ran an indie mag out of our editors apartment and a guy said i was using the word “indie” wrong
— Anna Fitzpatrick (@bananafitz) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty Obstetrician disagreed that my baby was about to come. Mansplained & left for soda. 3 mins later: Baby born, no doc in room
— Amy Duncan (@amydunc) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty I get the entertainment industry explained to me all. the. time. by dudes.
…I am an entertainment writer in L.A.
— Alisha Grauso (@AlishaGrauso) March 21, 2017
@brokeymcpoverty at the racetrack—where I’ve worked for 14 years—men regularly try to explain to me how gambling works as I take their bets.
— Elizabeth Minkel (@elizabethminkel) March 21, 2017
This could go on for days. You can read the whole thread here.
Men show up eventually in the thread to argue that mansplaining isn’t really a thing, because of course.
When a group of people collectively agree that something limiting and frustrating is happening to them — in this case, dealing with being interrupted or patronized — why is it so hard for people not in that group to just, oh, I don’t know… LISTEN?
Men, will you ever stop ‘splaining?