“Mansplaining may seem like a trivial issue in isolation.”
California author Kim Goodwin tweeted out a helpful chart last month to guide men through the convoluted maze of appropriate conversation.
“I have had more than one male colleague sincerely ask whether a certain behavior is mansplaining,” she explained. “Since apparently this is hard to figure out, I made one of them a chart.”
I have had more than one male colleague sincerely ask whether a certain behavior is mansplaining. Since apparently this is hard to figure out, I made one of them a chart. pic.twitter.com/7DZ1RTrB3R
— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) July 19, 2018
The chart trails through diverging paths of conversation, sussing out the speaker’s relative expertise on the topic in discussion compared to that of his female interlocutor. While the possibility of “not mansplaining” technically exists, most paths lead to the more admonitory range between “probably mansplaining” and “just stop talking now.”
Goodwin elaborated on her full theory of incorrigible male-splainers in a BBC.com post, citing a few studies that show women tend to be more frequently interrupted than men, and that women suffer more social stigma than men for trying to inject themselves into a conversation.
“Mansplaining may seem like a trivial issue in isolation,” she wrote, “but how we communicate tells other people how much or little they are valued.”
One user, daring to raise his male eyebrows, accused the chart itself of ‘splaining.
Based on this chart girls explain things to me without me asking… So maybe we should start accusing women of #womansplaining
— Shane Guymon 濾 (@shaneguymon) July 20, 2018
Goodwin snarked back. The dialogue that ensued was sublime.
It’s been a long time since I was a girl.
— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) July 20, 2018
Ok, I’ve had a lot of females… In fact. You essentially just #womansplained the word girl to me.
— Shane Guymon 濾 (@shaneguymon) July 20, 2018
And in conclusion:
No. I pointed out that you are minimizing women by referring to us as children.
— Kim Goodwin (@kimgoodwin) July 20, 2018
Just when you thought our discourse was at peak trite.
Several years ago another writer and professional chart-maker Elle Armageddon sketched her own flowchart, which Bustle hailed as “perfectly” explaining mansplaining.
Should You Explain The Thing To The Lady?
A flowchart! pic.twitter.com/bR6gEXX6Nt
— Elle @ BSides/BlackHat/DEFCON (@ElleArmageddon) September 14, 2015
Well, we hope you learned something today.