Mansplaining or not?

You certainly have heard of the term mansplaining, meaning to condescendingly explain something while falsely assuming the explainee is ignorant of the subject matter; typically executed by a male on a female.

While this certainly exists and is often pointed out rightfully (and hilariously), there is a related aspect that I think should not be confused with mansplaining. Remember this old XKDC:

XKCD 1053

Combined it with the attitude that we all know very little, that it is fun to learn new things and that there is no prestige involved in knowing more or less, we can easily find ourselves "involuntarily mansplaining". This situation, even if it lacks the misjudgment of expertise and the condescension, can be perceived as mansplaining.

Should it? Maybe. After all, in this case, the explainer has misconceved not the knowledge of the explainee, but the mind set and presence of the aforementioned attitude, resulting in a failure of human interaction. On the other hand, we might not want to stifle open exchange of ideas too much by being afraid of appearing mansplaining.

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