Alright, we gotta get right to the point here, because this is gonna be a lot of cringe and frankly I’m not sure if you, or I, am equipped to handle it all.
It starts with Twitter user @itsPKav sharing this gem of a mansplaining moment and prompting others to join in with their own:
what’s the dumbest thing that’s ever been mansplained to you?
mine is one time I was driving and my husband let me know our home was “up ahead on the left.”
— Priscilla (@itsPKav) August 1, 2020
And then…oh boy.
Here are just a few of the topics women have had mansplained to them. Buckle up.
15. Paint
Literally just…paint.
the Home Depot guy said it's a pretty complicated product, and he didn't want to sell it to me becUse he didn't think I'd be able to use it properly.
But my brother, who can barely tell the handle from the roller, got handed the product, no questions, no explanations…— Dr. Becca Babcock (@notyourleader) August 2, 2020
14. Chocolate
I had to google this to know what it even was.
A date told me how to pronounce ganache.
They were wrong.
I own a chocolate store.— pheobe bridgerton (@marleemarzipan) August 1, 2020
13. Plants
Holy crap dude, thanks. I didn’t know that because I’m not in kindergarten yet.
Two hours ago, left ikea, holding a small ficus
Random man said: “you should water that, else it’ll die”
To which I replied: “I was planning on burning it anyway, so I’m good”
That shut him up ?
— Marjolein (@akmboer) August 5, 2020
12. Books
Just thinking about writing that many makes me tired.
A guy who has never published a book mansplained the publishing industry to me. I’ve had 25 books published.
— Leigh Anne Jasheway (@lajfun) August 1, 2020
11. Epilepsy
Yeah pretty sure seizures have been studied for a while now, but thanks.
A guy tried to painstakingly explain to me that my diagnosed epilepsy was a “mental health problem” and it was “all in my head” and I could “be cured if I wanted to”. I have two masters degrees in mental and physical health disciplines. ?
— Sarah Whitson (@sarrbehrr) August 2, 2020
10. Language
“Well but you just drew a picture of a bird though.”
A boyfriend who didn’t speak my native language took a cursory look at something I was translating from my native language and told me I had translated it wrong. From my native language. Which he did not speak.
— Melanie Stefan (@MelanieIStefan) August 2, 2020
9. Childbirth
I went through this and can confirm that it doesn’t hurt in the slightest other than the occasional blow to your pride as it cracks.
I remember my brother once telling a room full of campers that a mans voice changing was worse than childbirth. I swear if there wasn’t a room full of kids my mother would’ve decked him. Instead she was like “you give birth and get back to me”.
— Emily G (@em_was_here_) August 2, 2020
8. PAINT (again!)
What the heck is with all these dudes being so protective of paint?
I told my husband who couldn’t wrap his head around it. I had complaining about mansplaining for years, but that was the first time he got it. He called the store/talked to manager, and they comped me a gallon for free. But still, it took a man to explain for them to get it
— ace01 (@ace_under) August 3, 2020
7. Medicine
Pretty sure you could.
Doing pre-abortion educ w/ group of patients & a (male) med stdt/observer. I picked up the speculum. ALL the pts groaned or rolled their eyes.
Male med stdt: you can’t feel one of those when it’s inserted.Us:
Me: how would you know?
Patients applauded.
— Jeannie Ludlow (@JeannieLudlow) August 2, 2020
6. Guitar tuning
“Oh thanks, I just found this on the street.”
I’d arrived at a venue where I was scheduled to perform and a man saw me with my guitar, explained about how to tune it and then offered to show me.
— Kim Tillman ✍? & ? ? (@TheKimTillman) August 3, 2020
5. Cooking
I have a feeling that pan got thrown.
After my grandpa went into retirement, he started to tell my granny how to cook, which pans she should use etc. He can’t even cook simple scrambled eggs – he’d be lost without her! After a while she was so angry, she told him if he wouldn’t shut up, she’d throw the pan after him
— Madita Hofmann (@Madita_Hofmann) August 2, 2020
4. Your own children
Well done, dummy.
When we were traveling in Uganda men kept explaining to me that one of my twin girls must be a boy because we didn’t dress them similar…. right, I missed the p*nis for 2 years…
— Marieke Bierhoff (@MariekeBierhoff) August 7, 2020
3. Pumping gas
To be fair, it’s possible he’d actually come across multiple idiots who really did not know how to do this.
I told a gas station attendant the pump was broken and he said you just have to really get the nozzle in there. Then he came outside with me to demonstrate. Turns out the pump was broken.
— Alison Shrake (@alison_shrake) August 2, 2020
2. Food allergies
Why even argue? Just get the friggin’ pen.
One time a restaurant manager incorrectly explained my own food allergy to me WHILE I was mid-anaphylactic shock and struggling to breathe. (The culprit was pecans; the manager tried to argue with me that it was pine nuts when pine nuts aren’t nuts at all — they’re seeds.)
— Chelsea Cristene Bock ??? (@ChelseaCristene) August 2, 2020
1. Bartending
That tends to happen.
A guy I bartended with tried to tell me how to do something his way when I’d been there for years and he’d been there a couple of months.
I literally got right in his face and calmly said, “NEVER tell me how to do my job.” And he avoided me forever after ?
— Mrs. Poops McClurr (@NYCRose84) August 2, 2020
Cut it out with the mansplaining, guys. We can do better.
Have you ever had something like this happen?
Tell us about it in the comments.