mansplaining

Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia (Licensed)

This woman made the best mansplaining chart of all time

Well actually, it's more of a diagram.

 

Brittany Vincent

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 20, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 10:34 am CDT

Ladies, we’ve all been here before. Maybe a man overhears you talking about something with a friend and decides to pop in with some unsolicited advice. Maybe you retweeted something or wrote a helpful thread on your experience on a certain topic, only to be met with a throng of male Twitter users offering corrections and suggestions that you never asked for. It’s called mansplaining, and it’s unfortunately a part of everyday life for many of us.

It’s not always on purpose. It’s not always meant with ill intent. But it does tend to happen more often than it should, especially in the workplace and especially when men work alongside female colleagues who just don’t need a topic they’re deeply familiar with explained to them.

Unfortunately, many still don’t quite understand the concept of mansplaining or how offering unsolicited advice could be damaging or frustrating for women. That’s why one woman stepped forward with a genuine desire to help.

Kim Goodwin—the author of Designing for the Digital Age, as well as a consultant and executive—designed a flow chart to help her male colleagues understand whether or not the behavior they’re exhibiting is mansplaining. Finally, we’ve got the definitive tool to help men figure out if what they’re doing or saying fits into that category.

Similar charts have circulated before, but it looks like Goodwin really nailed it with this one.

People are really loving it. And they should, because it’s genius. And useful!

https://twitter.com/jennrubenstein/status/1020161525653417984

https://twitter.com/donnie_reese/status/1020133815271022592

https://twitter.com/OzLady41563/status/1020153288950308865

Some were appreciative that Goodwin took the time to create the chart and genuinely wanted to learn more about bettering their communication with female colleagues—and women in general.

Some were just heretofore afraid to ask for further clarification.

Of course, Goodwin’s mentions were still rife with contrarians—and mansplaining itself. But she took on much of the criticism with steady, amiable explanations.

We salute you, Goodwin, and we thank you for breaking mansplaining all down in terms that anyone is able to understand. Yes, anyone. Even us women.

Share this article
*First Published: Jul 20, 2018, 6:09 pm CDT