Last week, professional golfer Georgia Ball was recording her swings at a Liverpool driving range when another golfer stopped her. The other player, a man, began to give advice to the PGA pro star, instructing her to “follow through” and speed up her swing—common tips for beginners.
Explaining that she is going through a ‘swing change,’ a golf technique many players perform to improve their swing, Ball prepared for her next swing and launched the ball straight down the range.
The male amateur golfer then retorted, “see how much better that was?”
That video I came across, posted to TikTok, has amassed millions of views and tens of thousands of comments expressing shared grief over the unsolicited mansplaining.
Mansplaining is the term to describe the act of a man forcibly and condescendingly explaining something to a woman, often when she is more knowledgeable herself.
Commonly misattributed as the coiner of the term, author Rebecca Solnit first wrote about the phenomenon in an essay entitled Men Explain Things to Me. In the text, Solnit references an anecdote where she had been asked by a man about her writing at a party.
She began telling about her latest book concerning Eadweard Muybridge when the man interjected, asking “have you heard about the very important Muybridge book that came out this year?”
Although she did not use the term mansplaining, she did describe the incident as not isolated; further, she insisted it was a feeling that “every woman knows.”
March 1 begins Women’s History Month, where leagues of bitter men celebrate with the hashtag #menshistorymonth in an attempt to co-opt the movement. Though, for those who wish to appreciate the life and labor of women, there exist many ways to recognize this celebration of femininity.
Full disclosure—the author of this article is. . .a man! However, he feels it his duty to consider the atrocities of centuries of gender discrimination.
Firstly, the malevolence of mansplaining must be addressed.
Despite the rush one can get from feeling as though they saved a woman from the darkness of ignorance and shone their light of knowledge onto her, it really isn’t necessary…ever.
To better themselves, men should take it back to kindergarten—use their listening ears and keep a bubble in their mouth.
It doesn’t take a genius (and trust, many believe themselves to be) to realize that women have the same potential for experience and knowledge in whichever niche they are operating in.
Some of the smartest and wisest people have been women; from Marie Curie to Malala Yousafzai, change is feminine.
Though, despite the abilities of women of the world, men consistently use tactics such as mansplaining to exclude these voices and talents from the professional world. It took an invested interest to silence women for so long; let men take up a new interest to uplift and highlight the women of today.
This Women’s History Month, men should take the time to stop, listen and celebrate the women in their lives. However, gender parity is not something men should just call for—it must be something they live.
Do not stop with reposted infographics on Instagram; do not stop with ‘Herstory’ stickers; do not stop with a held door and lowered toilet seat.
If men truly wish to live in a world inhabited wholly by all sexes, the actions to bring about equality demand to be met every morning, noon and night.
It takes societal effort and true intention to end sexual violence, abolish the pay gap and quit the condescension that keeps women out of the conversation.
Equality doesn’t end with men who listen, but it might as well start that way.
