I have had enough of mansplaining.
It’s definitely not a new concept, but even with the awareness of what mansplaining is, men are still unaware of when they are doing it. They seemingly cannot be stopped and I am sick and tired of it.
I don’t think I need to explain what mansplaining is to the readers of HER Campus. We have all been there, but as a woman in STEM who deals with this form of sexism in almost all of my classes, I believe we all need to take a stand for our peace of mind. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t think I can take another conversation with a man explaining to me how to copy and paste from a document (I absolutely hate that this is a true story).
“It’s not our jobs to change men’s behavior, but to make our lives easier, let’s stop listening to them”
I have a good friend whom I love dearly who just can’t help but explain things that either I already know or they know nothing about. Recently, he tried to argue with me about boygenius–one of my favorite bands and a band that he had never heard of before this conversation. He claimed that because they kissed each other at their shows while not dating, that their concert is a form of queerbaiting. While it is absolutely insane to argue with a queer woman about boygenius, what I learned from that interaction is that men do not care if they are wrong; they will take the self-righteous argument and pose it as if they know better than you. Since they will never admit that they are wrong, the easiest way to stop them from having an idiotic argument is to literally stop them midsentence. If you don’t, it will be a waste of your time.
To all the men in my STEM classes who have mansplained how to use basic lab equipment, I need to start walking away from your sexist assumptions. To all the men in my personal life, I truly do not take your opinions on my favorite media seriously and I need to stop getting angry about it. You are never going to stop being the way you are, so I found that the easiest way to avoid your infuriatingly condescending explanations is to either walk away or stop them from continuing. You can continue talking, but just know that I will not be listening.
Until mansplainers gain the awareness of a reasonable human being, the only way to stop them is by taking your own action. Until men have the ability to think “Maybe boygenius just isn’t for me,” we just have to say “I’m gonna have to stop you there, this is a waste of both of our time.” It is not our job to change men’s behavior, but to make our lives easier, let’s stop listening to them.