We asked the BuzzFeed Community to share the dumbest shit that's been mansplained to them. These were the responses.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
1. The best date ever:
I once had a date try to explain to me how to pronounce my last name.
3. The gynecologist:
I told my then-boyfriend that I had originally been prescribed birth control pills to help with my unbearably painful cramps. He went on to explain to me that pills are what cause the cramps, otherwise periods don’t hurt... OK.
4. The coach:
Once this guy tried to explain to me how to hold a hockey stick. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t been playing hockey since I was 10.
5. The francophiles:
I am French. As in born and raised there. I immigrated to the States when I was 30, and because I have barely a hint of an accent, it often does not register with other people that I am actually French, not just of French descent. Cue the innumerable pompous mansplaining incidents by natural-born Americans trying to explain to me how the French health care system is just bad. Except it's not. So it always ends up with me telling them the story of how I got cancer when I was 8 years old, and how my parents paid nothing out of pocket for three years of treatment.
—Adelaide McMillan, Facebook
6. The IT guy:
I work with a guy who comes to my desk at least three times a month asking if I know how to unlock a secure email. I say yes every single time and he is genuinely surprised every single time. This does not stop him from explaining the process to me. Every. Single. Time.
—Angela Christine, Facebook
7. The great explorer:
Years ago a guy I dated said something about "lions and tigers in Africa." I told him there aren't tigers in Africa, unless they are in zoos. He insisted that Africa was full of tigers and continued to roll his eyes at me in this condescending fashion until I made him look it up. He didn't even apologize; he said, "Well, I guess I was wrong then."
—Fredericka Turner, Facebook
8. The jockey:
I had a co-worker mansplain the proper way to hold the reins when horseback riding. I've been riding since I was 7, and the information was wrong.
9. The bathroom attendants:
I've had so many men waiting for their wives outside of bathrooms explain to me how to use the locking button for the wheelchair bathroom. I told one guy that I had used it before and he only stopped talking to me when the door fully closed.
I think that I, a person in a wheelchair, would know how to use a wheelchair bathroom more than a man standing outside.
—Montana Fuge, Facebook
10. The comic geek:
My favorite mansplaining moment was on the bus. I have all these pretty hair clips that are flowers with nerd buttons in the middle. So I'm wearing my Deadpool flower on the bus, and this man taps me on the shoulder. He proceeds to tell me, "I like your hair thing because it's a comic book character, Deadpool. He's not a hero, though, and I don't think he would appreciate being on a flower." And he's smiling like he's done me some kind of favor. So I told him which issue of Deadpool was my favorite, why he'd probably love the random nature of his face in the middle of a flower that someone wears to corporate America, and why his explanation was both condescending and completely unneeded, all before he got off the bus.
—Stevie Williams, Facebook
11. The mouse whisperer:
I am a herpetologist — I work with reptiles and amphibians — and recently I went to a pet store to buy some frozen mice for a captive snake. The man helping me asked me if I knew how to thaw frozen mice, and I said yes. He then proceeded to mansplain how to thaw mice correctly. I was wearing my wildlife service uniform and had already told him that I knew how!
—Rachel King, Facebook
12. The helpful hospital friend:
My aunt was in ICU for three weeks and her brother-in-law came in. I was explaining to my uncle what the doctors had said about my aunt's progress, and her brother-in-law began to mansplain to me how that ICU ran and what everything meant, even the simplest things. I am a pharmacist who did a monthlong rotation at that particular ICU.
—Heather Dawn, Facebook
13. The assistant seamstress:
I work as a seamstress, and a customer's husband kept trying to tell me how to pin a garment, explaining that he’s an engineer, so he just naturally knows how stuff works. He even kept pulling the skirt out of my hands while I was trying to pin in order to show me what I was doing wrong. I’ve been sewing for 10 years, but I’m sure an engineer knows more about it than I do.
14. The navigator:
When I dropped my grandma off at the bus station, an attendant explained how to get to my destination. That destination was my own street, where I live.
15. The vagina expert:
A guy I knew tried to mansplain to me for at least 15 minutes that women pee out of their vaginas. He kept insisting this as I, among other women, told him that was incorrect, and even continued to mansplain when I showed him a vulval diagram. The nerve of some mansplainers.
—Elliot Gunderman, Facebook
