Mansplaining Mansplaining to Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit, the author of Men Explain Things to Me and the reported inspiration for the term ‘mansplaining’1 recently appeared on Michael Lewis’ Against the Rules podcast titled The Overconfidence Game (Ep.6). In the episode, she explains how men explain things to her in condescending ways despite her superior knowledge of most topics.

As she was explaining the concept of ‘mansplaining’ it occurred to me that Rebecca had based her conclusion on a false assumption. Specifically, anytime a man explains something to a woman he is explaining it because of her gender. I would argue that there are LOTS of men (and even some women) who explain things to others in condescending ways assuming they have no knowledge about the topic regardless of the sex of the listener.

Every man can share MANY stories of men and women explaining a concept to them in a condescending way. It is a phenomenon that all humans deal with on a regular basis. Rebecca, a lifelong feminist activist, views the world through a lens that causes her to assume every uncomfortable situation she encounters is due to systemic sexism in our society. The reality is that there is no dearth of people who will treat you badly regardless of your sex. There are, of course, sexist people but I would not discount the fact that men who mansplain do it to women as frequently as they do it to men. And, yes, I realize I will be accused of mansplaining mansplaining but perhaps in doing so I have made my point - according to Google Analytics more than 75% of the people reading this article identify as men…

FWIW: I have really been enjoying Michael’s podcast - you might know him as the author of Liar's Poker, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, and The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.