Right, women today haven't been barred from going to college and so on, and things have thankfully progressed from that. So anyone who's displaying the level of outrage today as though nothing has changed is overreacting.
But, societal attitudes, particularly those that have been in place for hundreds if not thousands of years, change slowly and gradually, and a good portion resist it. This could be about racism, sexism, or the acceptance/rejection of gay people.
These attitudes and beliefs get handed down from one generation to the next, usually diluted from one generation to the next, but are still there, although usually (hopefully) in more subtle forms.
With the term mansplaining you have multiple current generations responding to it, although a name wasn't put to it until 2008 (give or take). Many have experienced it, which is why they've responded to it, although some, particularly of younger generations, probably are mistaking it when really it's peoplesplaining and, again, overreacting.
If you define man or womansplaining as defined as related to what's traditionally men's or women's domain, what's considered women's domain is much smaller than men's (see AndyKing's Venn diagram in this thread), and generally considered less important. A man (unless he's a chef or a home cook) isn't likely to be offended by a woman explaining to him how to cook. Or a woman (unless she's a mechanic) be offended by a man explaining to her how to fix a car.
Given these factors, this is, IMO, why mansplaining became a thing, while womansplaining hasn't. I'm not saying men don't have any reason to complain about women. That's a different kettle of fish.
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dmac8 (5050)
5 years ago
From what I've read, womansplaining only came into being as a parallel retort to mansplaining. Speaking for myself, it's more about the assumption and the perceived desire for counsel rather than the specific subject. It's as if I proclaimed my ignorance and begged for answers to a question I had not asked. In most cases, I had not said a word before I received instruction on the subject. As I said, I usually play it off with sarcasm b/c I think it's a less than major offense. But if you're oblivious to that in yourself yet join in the growing din of protest -- as though it's finally been outed as an exclusively male practice -- you're doing it wrong. I think the younger generation is guilty of that as well as attributing many negative human tendencies to men only.
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