I’ve certainly been given little lectures about my area of historical expertise by older men with absolutely no qualifications except too much time with the history channel.

And I agree with John S that while mansplaining specifically is about gendered interactions, the phenomenon is attached to power and privilege and therefore reproduces itself in different iterations across the board. (Thus it can be a good lesson for everyone, to check their privilege and think about what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.) I know people of color loved to be told about their experiences from white folks. And the queer community is always relieved when the straights set them um, straight. Etc.

(It does raise a question, though–is gender “absent” when men are struggling for status, even when it is implicit that women aren’t part of the interaction? I have always assumed that it’s there when you’re talking about men playing the part of the “father” or “boss,” since those roles have such masculinist connotations. But I could be off base here.)

I can fully grant that mansplaining best explains men treating women in this particular manner. After all, men still have the term “d!ck-s!z!ng” to describe their lamest forms of jockeying for authority.

John, I’ve been wondering whether there’s a difference in the interaction if the person who is being condescended to is also a man. Does it become more of a jockeying-for-power dynamic? I guess I’m thinking about all of the size-related competitions that are our society’s favored mode of representation of one male’s power over other males … whereas since women aren’t even in the running in those size-based competitions, “mansplaining” refers to that implicit assumption that the woman isn’t just subordinate in the race for authority, but that she can’t even take part in the competition?

And Historiann, I’ve been a long time reader and very excited to join in the discussion on your blog at last! Thanks for the always interesting posts, and I hope you don’t mind me throwing in my $0.02.

“Mansplaining” describes these dialogues when they occur specifically in gendered contexts … and it’s just a simply an awesome word. Somehow, it’s great to be able to name this attitude that permeates the film industry and bleeds into my classes quite often.

“What’s in a name…?” Ah, so much!

(Perhaps I’m reading too much into “mansplaining.” However, my experiences have mainly been exchanges in which the mansplainer knows that the woman he’s addressing has a roughly equivalent technical/scholarly background, and yet he never talks in terms of his experience or his opinions, acknowledging his subjective position; rather he tells the woman how she should think, what she will do…in essence, assuming he has the power to speak authoritatively of her situation.)

2) That mansplaining link is unbelievably awesome.

2) As a man (but I hope not too often a mansplainer), I can attest to the fact that mansplaining is a phenomenon not entirely limited to interactions between men and women; there can be a definite age/class dimension here as well, especially for those men who see their authority over “dependents” and subordinates as something that includes men and women. I mean, a *real* patriarch can put other men as well as women “in their place.” (To which I can only say: ah, the joys of getting tenure.)

I feel fortunate to be paired with a man who is good at explaining things that I’d like explained. But why should he go out of his way to explain something to me that I already know? His time could be better employed in creating great art — or doing the dishes — or anything else, really. What’s the point of an explanation when none is required?

Ah, but by explaining something to someone who already understands the topic at hand (and is thus very threatening!), the mansplainer has a valuable opportunity to assert his manhood, reaffirm his sense of self, and project his own voice over and above that of the Other. Mansplainers always talk to or *for* the person they are purportedly trying to help, rather than *with.*

I have enough of that every day in film school. I can’t imagine having to engage with defensive-aggressive posturing when I come home!