A pizza my mind: The phenomenon of mansplaining

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man, when in conversation with a woman, will always explain things unnecessarily.

I recently met a fellow Trojan at an event. He seemed a little out of depth, standing to the side on his own, staring down at the gathered people — he was by far the tallest person in the room. He seemed uncomfortable, as though he couldn’t understand how he ended up at this particular event.

If you’ve ever been at a USC event where pizza was served, you know how crazy things can get; free food and starved, broke college students is always cause for a frenzy. Having been focused on grabbing a cheesy slice before it was all gone, I didn’t notice that he’d moved until he was standing next to me in line, paper plate and napkin in hand.

“Hi,” he said, his voice barely loud enough to be heard over the din.

“Hi,” I replied, distracted by the possibility of pizza running out.

In hindsight, I should have probably pretended to have not heard him. Why? Because what followed was the most excruciatingly mind-numbing hour of conversation I’ve ever endured.

The guy, who shall go unnamed, was a self-proclaimed Expert On All Things, whether it be philosophy or comic books. For the latter, he fired question after complicated question at me, clearly of the mind that I was a “fake geek girl,” which is an insulting stereotype for females across the world.

Halfway through his explanation of why drones are so much more intricate than I, a mere girl, could understand, I was struck by this guy’s need to explain things to me. Every topic I brought up, he quickly took control, as though establishing his position as an alpha male.

That night, after venting about the ordeal on Tumblr, my friend sent me a commiserating message and a book recommendation: Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit.

Men Explain Things To Me began as an essay which went viral. Solnit’s hilarious, yet critical tone was so familiar to many women, who have had similar condescending interactions with men. Solnit also inspired the popular term “mansplaining,” which gave rise to other terms such as “manspreading.”

Mansplaining happens in all environments, but its effects are felt more in the academic world, where men’s entitlement to intellectual space often silences their female counterparts.

“Yes, people of both genders pop up at events to hold forth on irrelevant things and conspiracy theories, but the out-and-out confrontational confidence of the totally ignorant is, in my experience, gendered,” Solnit writes. “Men explain things to me, and other women, whether or not they know what they’re talking about. Some men.”

Solnit is, of course, correct. Although generalizing all men is not very charitable, it’s reasonable to say all women and girls have been catcalled or patronized or demeaned by men. That is not to say that all men are evil; it’s just that the patriarchal society we live in has conditioned boys to grow up thinking that females lack that fundamental something that makes them as worthy as males.

“Every woman knows what I’m talking about,” Solnit continues.

In  an interview with The Guardian, Solnit revealed that even after the success of her essay-turned-book, men still explain things to her! Can you say unreal?

“If there were awards to be handed out, one might go to the man who told me and a woman friend that 1) women actually like all those catcalls 2) as a man who’s spent time in men’s-only locker rooms, he knows men don’t actually speak to women that way,” Solnit said. “Just ask an expert. Who is not a lady.”

Noorhan Maamoon is a junior majoring in print and digital journalism.  Her column, “The Hijabi Monologues,” runs on Thursdays.