mansplanation

mansplanation

English

Etymology

From mansplain and explanation.

Noun

mansplanation (plural mansplanations)

1. (informal) A condescending explanation given by a male explainer to a female listener, especially to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that she has an inferior understanding of it because she is a woman.
   • 2012, Ameer Hasan Loggins, "Bitch Bad: Misogyny, Misappropriated Anger & 'Me-ism'", Onyx Express (University of California, Berkeley), Volume 18, Issue 1, Spring 2012, page 9:

     Like I said, I can see how a person can take the song as a mansplanation of an issue primarily pertaining to women, but was that Lupe’s intention?

   • 2012, Erika Eichelberger, "Men Defining Rape: A History", Mother Jones, August 2012:

     English physician Samuel Farr was pretty certain women couldn't get pregnant without an orgasm. The Guardian quotes the mansplanation from his 1814 Elements of Medical Jurisprudence: "For without an excitation of lust, or the enjoyment of pleasure in the venereal act, no conception can probably take place. So that if an absolute rape were to be perpetrated, it is not likely she would become pregnant."

   • 2014 October 28, Alex Marwood, The Killer Next Door, Penguin (2014), →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     Vesta's left me alone with him so he can give me some sort of Big Daddy lecture. Because the thing I need right now is a mansplanation of the error of my thinking.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:mansplanation.