An interesting phenomenon has been surfacing around the internet lately and has been for sometime. As far as I can tell, people are aware of it, but there is no identified name to label this occurrence. So, I’ll just have to call it the Manpocalypse.
Now that it has been targeted and labeled, it’s time to focus in on what exactly this unique occurrence is. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to the Manpocalyptic Matrix.
Have you ever heard words such as "mansplaining," "manterrupting," or "manspreading" used as part of someone’s vernacular? If so, then you are at least somewhat aware of the ever-present manpocalpyse. This phenomenon is threatening the world we live in with its constantly changing vocabulary. What’s next? Will one of these made-up buzzwords actually permeate into our dictionary? Oh wait, it has. Unfortunately, mansplaining was added as an actual word to the Oxford English Dictionary recently.
Let’s go through some of these very popular examples. Mansplaining, according to the official Oxford English Dictionary, is “(of a man) explain (something) to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing.” Basically, it’s when a man explains something condescendingly towards a woman.
Ok, first of all, does this really happen that many times to warrant it becoming a new word? Instead of labeling a man that does this to be “mansplaining” why don’t you just call him out for speaking condescendingly to women? There have been no studies to prove that this phenomenon actually happens often enough for it to be an issue and how would you even measure quantitatively whether it was a big enough problem?
That’s why I have a problem with all these terms, all of these words have just come about because of isolated instances or scenarios with no substantial evidence that backs up the idea that mansplaining is an actual issue.
Second of all, how do we know that these men who “mansplain” don’t just limit themselves to women? They could be “mansplaining” to all genders, so does that make it “mansplaining” anymore? And what if all these accounted incidences of "mansplaining" are all just isolated or women taking conversations out of context? Has feminism really come to the point where we scrutinize the tonal values of speech coming from a male? For all we know, women could be “womensplaining,” as well.
Next, we have "manterrupting," or when a man interrupts a woman. This is just plain idiotic. Anyone can interrupt anyone, it’s not attached to a gender. Sorry to break it to you guys, but men aren’t the only ones capable of interrupting someone and neither are they the only ones capable of explaining something condescendingly. Even if men interrupt women more frequently, why is the immediate conclusion to jump to sexism? It’s like some people just want to assume the worst about men no matter what they do or how they act.
There are other reasons why people interrupt people (maybe because what they’re saying makes no sense, or they had an ingenious idea, or the other person is just rambling.) To sum it up to sexism is unfair to men and to women.
Ok, I think this last one that I’m covering is actually one of the worst because of how hypocritical it is. "Manspreading" is usually defined as the wide stance men always have where they take up a lot of space. This is too hilarious to me because of these people’s deluded misunderstandings on human anatomy and the irony of what they are saying.
I mean, people do realize that men have certain anatomical parts that kinda require them to widen their legs when they sit, right? There’s a reason women can cross their legs and men can’t. It’s obviously uncomfortable enough as it is being forced to do that, but now we want to shame men for doing it?
Furthermore, apparently, "manspreading" is supposed to happen a lot on public transportation where men will take up more than one seat because of this stance. However, the irony. Oh, the irony. What about women and their bags? I can’t even tell you the number of times I’ve seen women take up not even two, but three or four entire seats with their bags. In fact, I’ve seen this “phenomenon” more than I’ve seen "manspreading," so what’s the deal?
Overall, can we stop attaching man to every verb and turn it into some sexist action against feminism and stop scrutinizing men for their every little misstep? While feminists here are complaining about "mansplaining" and "manspreading," women in Saudi Arabia are getting beaten and thrown into jail for being the VICTIM of rapes and little girls in India are being sold into prostitution. Every minute we spend accosting men for "mansplaining," we lose time that can be used to help actual oppressed women around the world.
Please, let’s not have more man-words added to the Oxford Dictionary. It’s time to put an end to the manpocalypse.