Maybe it’s time to make ‘womansplaining’ a thing

 

A recent W magazine story rightfully suggests that the only thing worse than the reality of a Trump presidency is getting mansplained to about why a Trump presidency might not be so bad. Because, let’s be real, that’s only the case if you’re a straight white male. But in the introduction to her story, author Glynnis MacNicol proposes something fascinating: “even if we can’t have a woman president, it’s time to usher in womansplaining.”

What, you may ask, might an era of womansplaining look like? Isn’t it kind of hypocritical and counterproductive? Well, maybe. But maybe it’s exactly what we need right now.

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For the blissfully uninitiated, mansplaining occurs when a man assumes that, by virtue of the fact that he is a man, he knows more about a given topic than a woman — even when that topic is, for example, something the woman has a PhD in. Even when that topic is something she undoubtedly knows more about than him. Even when that topic is fucking tampons.

It’s such a widespread and troubling phenomenon these days that there’s even a helpline for it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/voS-N8i1Dr/?tagged=mansplain

Now, I’m not suggesting that we go out and start lecturing men about their individual areas of expertise, nor do I think we should set ourselves back five decades by attempting to explain to dudes things like table clothes and napkin rings, as this Huffington Post article seems to think is womansplaining, because one, who wants to have a conversation about that shit at a time like this? And two, we don’t need a reason for more men to think this kind of stuff is our chief concern. It’s very much not. Also? Most adult men seem to know what a tablecloth is and what purpose it serves.

But perhaps womansplaining could be something else altogether — a way to reclaim the topics that we, as women, really do know more about. Because every girl does know how Hillary Clinton feels right now. Every woman does know more than every man about sexism, about feeling afraid to walk down the street alone at night, about sexual harassment, about being told to “smile,” about the importance of our reproductive rights, and yes, about tampons.

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And there’s never been a more crucial time in history to make that abundantly clear to any man who seems unwilling or unable to understand that.

As MacNicol points out, the swift and sudden normalization of Trump in the mainstream media, and the refusal by many outlets to address the roles that sexism and racism played in his election, not to mention the rampant misogyny that defined much of the coverage of Hillary’s campaign, is “mansplaining on an institutional level.”

If the only antidote to this is womansplaining — that is, standing up for ourselves and the issues we’re inherent experts on — then count us in.