Girlieboy get’s mansplained to for the first time; I think I want to vomit

Ladies, what gives? Are even men who know less than you out there talking down to you even on subjects you know a lot about? It makes me sick to my stomach to think about.

About a week ago I wrote a post about one of the major ills that is facing the world, income inequality.  I reposted the post to another platform, “Medium”, as I like that platform for its feeds and for many of the writers present there.  Medium readers are also very active in terms of commenting and reacting to things one another write, so I have found it an interesting place for feedback.

But you also get turkeys writing back.  I think that I got mansplained to for the first time in my life. And it was really interesting.  First off, it was kind of unpleasant.  The worst part about it was that there was nothing in what he wrote that was aggressive or rude, at least not overtly so.

It was just that there was this tone or undertone to the reply that was talking to me as if I was stupid, or at least not as bright as he was.  And he took the time to write a really long and thoughtful message.  And it was well written, not just some slapdash response.

And for the first time I realised someone was mansplaining to me.  How hideous!  I realise that he was reacting to my picture of me.  If my profile picture were of manly me, would he have dared write in that way?  What is it about a person’s psyche that would make them write with one tone to one class of people and another tone to a different class of people?  It is very disturbing.

And the thing is, as earnest and deeply believing of his points, he was just trotting out the same old pro-capitalist propaganda that the right wing has been giving out verbatim.  That is a line which is deeply tragic, because 99% of the people who repeat it are actually victims of the very policies they support.  Anyway, I will keep the content and politics of the that discussion to the other platform, but what got me is that I was being mansplained to by someone who clearly had not used independent, critical thinking to arrive at the points he was making, and yet he was still mansplaining to me.

And what I was thinking as I read his comments were: 1. You don’t know what you are talking about, 2. You are a nobody, 3. You know nothing about me and the qualifications I have to render those opinions, and 4. Your arguments aren’t even your own, they are just silly propaganda tropes. Ladies, is this what it always feels like?  

I guess it’s about time I get mansplained to. In a way it is perversely validating.  But I am flabbergasted at how insidious it is, and how natural it seemed to flow.  Help!