Mansplain(Man+Explain)

The fires of feminism do not disappear even in the past or now. Recently, you may have heard of the words, feminism and gender quality. In addition to growing interest in feminism, for example, a female actor is not an actress but rather an actor, and English speaking countries are attempting to reject words that discriminate against women based on male. Along with these efforts, in June 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is legalized across the United States. As the gender equality culture spreads, there is a growing voice in the language, too. In fact, there has been a campaign to use sex neutral languages in Canada. They say it should be the use of pronouns 'xe' as a sex neuter pronoun, instead of pronouns 'he' or 'she' that distinguish a particular gender. In Sweden, the word recommended using hen (they) instead of han (he) or hon (she). It appeared in 1960, but it made to the dictionary for the first in 2014. As these linguistic changes take place, many new words are being born.

The new word to introduce here is 'Mansplain.' Mansplain is a word that combines man and explain. In the dictionary, a man explains something to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing. This word began to become popular among feminist bloggers to express the concept that had existed a long time ago and the experiences that everyone has often experienced. It gained a lot of sympathy, and finally Mansplain was selected as one of the words of the year in the New York Times in 2010. It was also the candidate for the most creative word in 2012 in the American Language Study Group and was listed on the online version of Oxford Dictionary in 2014.

It is difficult to point the origin of this word because it is used in many places at the same time. However, Rebecca Solnit's essay, “Men Explain Things To Me” can be easily understood. The author introduces an anecdote with a man whom she met at a party in a book. When the man told her that he had heard of the book, she replied that she had recently written a book about Eadweard Muybridge. The man then stopped her and asked, "Do you know that an important book about Muybridge is published this year?" He did not realize she was the author of the book.

The author pointed out that it is a usual phenomenon for a man to teach a woman in a stubborn attitude to show off his knowledge. Most men force women silent, presuming that they are ignorant of the subject they are talking about because they are women. Some women and feminist use the term mansplain in a different way. It is an expression that men customarily set "what a women should not do," and use it as sarcasm to discriminate against women as "a man hates something if she does something." Manplain tendencies are more evident in violence against women. There is no race, class, religion or nationality in violence. However, there is a gender. It is a reality and can not be shed. A man who overthrows women with various forms of violence, even worst case murders, has the instinct to deprive women and force them down.

The biggest victim of mansplain is mainly women, but men do not happen to be women, that is, not only in sex relations. For example, there are whitesplain that whites do to other race, and rightsplain which is right and non-right. These problems occur because they do not consider others’ thoughts. In addition, they think that the other person is inferior to oneself. It may lead to discrimination because it has prejudices that may lack of common sense and knowledge than oneself.

In this context, they use it to emphasize their superiority regardless of their genders. For example, as described earlier, there are many relationships, such as white to other races, an employer to an employee, a parent to a child. There are those who argue that the word implies gender discrimination because it appears in so many different relationships. They have proposed to call it ‘powersplain’ instead of ‘mansplain.’

The reason for introducing and explaining this word is not to look at men pessimistically or to generalize them. First, it is important to know why this word has come out and to solve the problem of gender perspectives. In all situations, one-sided blaming can not be the solution. In conclusion, both men and women need to explore, care for, and communicate with one other. That way you can straighten the mansplain. Feminism is about talking about being treated equally since it is not only about women,