Women Also Explain Things to Me
The word “mansplain” has evolved in meaning.
A smirk spread across the department meeting. A full professor had hijacked a discussion about curriculum planning, and started pontificating. About language. The Internet. Gender.
All stuff I’d published on. But which the other professor had only recently started thinking about.
Finally, the professor asked everyone why we weren’t paying more attention to these issues in our research. “In fact, why aren’t we teaching classes on this? We need to get on the cutting edge.”
Someone finally spoke up and pointed at me. “That’s actually why we hired her.” Eyes swiveled my way.
Was it my turn to pontificate?
Instead, I just gave everyone a thumbs up. “I can share my syllabi with anyone who’s interested. And my articles.”
Many of us already know that mansplaining has gone beyond its original inception. Women do it, too. But some men still get worked up, because we use the word “man,” instead of something else.
Why didn’t I grandstand? Because I hate doing that. Introverts like to plan out what they’re going to say — at…
