Huh. I didn't know Ben -had- a livejournal. Go figure.

If I'm not out of line commenting here rather than there, as I haven't glanced at my LJ account since the Zutara Shipping Wars of 2008, I'll take a stab at unpacking "mansplaining". Fair warning; there's no hard and fast definition of it, it's kind of still being worked out.

It's a bit more complex than just not being That Guy. It's a specific behavior having to do with privilege. I know you know exactly what privilege is; I've seen you use the phrase "Well, that's mighty white of you."

Basically, mansplaining involves a dude explaining to a lady (or ladies) something that 1) they already know, and are in fact intimately familiar with, in a manner that implies he is correcting some tragic gap in their education, or 2) trying to explain away something that said lady or ladies have a problem with, usually in a condescending and paternalistic way.

If you've ever met, say, an IT guy who assumes that every man who comes to him for help has a certain base level of technical knowledge, but whenever it's a woman, he launches into an explanation of how to use the mouse and what capslock does? That explanation is mansplaining.

Similarly, if you've ever met somebody who is prepared to explain at great length to women how, say, catcalling is really just a compliment men give to women and not a form of harassment, no really, he can prove that scientifically most women like it, you guys, he has charts and knows about evolutionary psychology and everything, that dude is also mansplaining.

Rule of thumb: if a conversation seems at all problematic to you, try and envision it happening any other way at all than a man explaining stuff to a woman. If you absolutely can't, good chance mansplaining is happening.

-Merc
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