Mansplain = man + explain. When a male explains something to a female under the false pretence that he knows and understands the topic better (i.e. because he is a male). This is often done in a condescending manner that disregards her intelligence.
e.g a dude explaining to a woman how numbers work AFTER she says she tells him she's an engineer. Yes thank you for mansplaining my f-ing degree/career to me.
by telitlikeisit September 9, 2017
verb, informal
(For a man) to feel a need to explain something basic in great detail to a woman, in a condescending manner, based purely on the expectation that she is unfamiliar with the subject matter because she is female.
Occasionally done as a well meaning, but ill aimed attempt to pick someone up.
(For a man) to feel a need to explain something basic in great detail to a woman, in a condescending manner, based purely on the expectation that she is unfamiliar with the subject matter because she is female.
Occasionally done as a well meaning, but ill aimed attempt to pick someone up.
This guy saw me changing my oil in my driveway. He came over and asked, "Do you need some help, there, sweetheart?" I said, "Thanks, but I've got it covered. I kind of like it, actually." He stayed to mansplain the entire process, step by step, AS I was doing it. Then he gave me his number and said to call him if I ever have any questions.
by Jassess September 20, 2017
The word “mansplain” can been traced to Rebecca Solnit, a writer whose 2008 essay “Men Explain Things to Me” laid out the mansplaining fundamentals (though the actual term only began croppping up on feminist blogs months later). In its early incarnation, it had a straightforward definition: when a man condescendingly lectures a woman on the basics of a topic about which he knows very little, under the mistaken assumption that she knows even less. In the piece, Solnit describes attending a party at which an oblivious male, “eyes fixed on the fuzzy far horizon of his own authority,” patronizingly attempts to tell her all about a new book on the photographer Eadweard Muybridge, which it turns out Solnit actually wrote. This all-too-typical experience of being unthinkingly talked down to, she writes, “trains women in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.”
by LemonyElmony August 24, 2017
by Tenen January 6, 2022
To ask someone of the opposite sex to explain something to you thoroughly and as though you understand nothing relating to the subject. Typically used when someone believes their lack of understanding to be caused by a gender barrier.
Man: *Sees period cup*
Man: Can you mansplain/womansplain what this is to me?
Woman: It's a rubber cup people put up their vag in place of a tampon or pad during their period. It collects the blood, then you can dispose of the blood and clean the cup to reuse it.
Man: Can you mansplain/womansplain what this is to me?
Woman: It's a rubber cup people put up their vag in place of a tampon or pad during their period. It collects the blood, then you can dispose of the blood and clean the cup to reuse it.
by Iris Walton November 24, 2022
the explanation of something by a man, to another man who they perceive as their inferior, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing.
by Fz9g3z September 10, 2019
When a man responds to accusations of mansplaining with the claim that "mansplaining is anyone disagreeing with you."
by SerenaBlackCat February 13, 2017