We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share the most ridiculous and frustrating things they've had "mansplained" to them. Here are the experiences every woman will feel in their bones.
1. Their own heritage.
"In one of my university classes, a guy tried to mansplain how women in China live to the professor, who is not only an expert on women in China but also a woman...from China."
2. What kind of pizza they should eat.
"I'm about 25 weeks pregnant with twins, so it's very obvious that I am pregnant. I went to get myself a margherita pizza and a fellow customer mansplained that a pregnant woman shouldn't have pizza with alcohol in it. Hope my kids are smarter than that guy."
3. Different types of beer.
"I was bartending at a Mexican restaurant and a guy sitting at the bar asked me about the beers we had. He picked one and when I brought it to him he said, 'Did you know there are lots of kinds of beers? Not just brands, but varieties? The beer I have is a light beer, but there are dark ones, too!' I was in shock that a man had just explained to a bartender that there are different kinds of beer."
4. Boobs.
"A man on Reddit tried to mansplain boobs to me, an owner of boobs. He tried to tell me that an illustration was incorrect because boobs can only be slightly different sizes."
5. Pregnancy and childbirth.
"One of my male coworkers tried to explain to me how pregnancy and giving birth worked...while I was eight months pregnant with my second child."
6. And specifically, how much childbirth hurts.
"My 17-year-old brother-in-law explained to me for about 15 minutes why getting kicked in the balls is more painful than childbirth. My 28 hours of labor and ultimate C-section say otherwise."
7. Periods.
"My stepdad, a cis man, once mansplained to me, a cis woman, what periods were. He was very insistent that you HAVE to have a period every month because that’s how your body gets rid of toxins??? There’s so much wrong there."
8. Pain.
"I used to get horrible ovarian cysts all the time, and once I was in so much pain I went to the hospital. A male doctor came in and asked me what my pain was on a scale from 1 to 10. I said nine and he looked at me like I was crazy and patronizingly said to me, 'Oh, it can't be that bad.' He then started explaining to me what my pain scale 'really' was. I know you went to med school and shit but have you ever had an ovarian cyst? Do you know what my pain feels like?"
9. How an oven works.
"One of my dating profile prompts is something along the lines of, 'I wish I was a better cook.' The response I got (direct quote): 'You should try oven-roasting stuff! It's basically just like a big industrial microwave with better control for time/heat.'"
10. How to close a door.
"A guy in my apartment building (wrongly) assumed that I was the one who left the building's front door open one day. So, he physically demonstrated and explained to me how to close the front door. He didn't think I knew how to close a door. A door!"
11. Tampons.
"A man recently tried to mansplain to me that a cardboard applicator tampon should feel the same as a plastic applicator tampon, so I should stop complaining about the old cardboard ones he had in his house from an ex-girlfriend. And no, he would not drive me to the store to buy the plastic applicator tampons."
12. Breastfeeding.
"When my son was a newborn, we had some breastfeeding struggles in the beginning (pretty common). My cousin's boyfriend overheard me talking with my aunts about it, and decided to chime in to explain to me how simple breastfeeding actually is."
13. How washing machines work.
"My new roommate tried to tell me our washing machine had different settings and times for the wash cycles... He was trying to mansplain a machine that I used THREE YEARS longer than he had. I looked at him with a blank stare and walked away."
14. How to do squats.
"He gave horrible (but common) advice: essentially to hyperextend the back by looking up, which puts unnecessary pressure on the neck, vertebrae, and lower lumbar. I'm a personal trainer with a kinesiology degree and had to explain to him why his advice could seriously cause harm."
15. Their health.
"A man tried to convince me that my Type 1 diabetes was because I had an unhealthy relationship with food. When I explained to him that it’s actually an autoimmune disorder, he said I wouldn’t understand what he meant because 'clearly I'm defensive about my weight and I don’t understand the human body' because I was a design major. I’ve had this disease since I was 10 and I’m now 22."
16. Their own academic research.
"I was at an academic conference once, and a guy sitting next to me at a session started to mansplain this recent paper that had come out about the topic. I was trying to interject, but he kept cutting me off, saying that it may go over my head, so he'd explain it to me. The lead author on that paper? Me."
—mbr8
17. Their own name.
"I was once mansplained how to pronounce my name. I was a server at a BBQ restaurant and part of my uniform was a name tag. I introduced myself to a man that was dining by himself. My name is Tawni (pronounced Tah-Nee) and after I introduced myself he 'informed' me that I was pronouncing it wrong, as I was forgetting the 'W' in the name. He kept insisting that I was saying my name (that I’ve lived with for 30 years) wrong for the entire time he was there."
18. Math.
"How the formula for the circumference of a circle is different than the formula for the area of a circle was mansplained to me by a history teacher. I have a degree in mathematics."
19. How to pump gas.
"I was driving a company car for work and decided to kill some time and just sit in the car at the gas pump. A man literally came over to show me how the pump worked, where to insert the credit card, etc."
20. How to shave their legs.
"My ex-boyfriend told me I was shaving my legs wrong. I responded with, 'I've been shaving my legs for 10 years, I think I'll stick to my way, thanks!' He then went into how men shave their faces and why, which I already knew about because I was a support worker for adults and needed to regularly shave their faces."
21. What words mean.
"I do pole fitness and my dating profile says so. This guy commented, 'How long have you been doing pole fitness for? Is it exhausting, i.e., uses a lot of energy?' The dude actually mansplained the word 'exhausting.'"
22. Their own sexuality.
"According to a guy I hooked up with, I only 'thought' I was attracted to more than one gender because I was in my early twenties. He told me not to worry (I wasn’t), he was confident I was only attracted to guys. It was just my young mind and a changing society that had convinced me I was interested in more than one gender. I’m now in my late twenties and still attracted to a variety of people, with the exception of jerks."
23. Mansplaining.
"My ex once mansplained mansplaining to me. I wish I was joking."
24. And finally...orgasms.
"'No woman can orgasm without a man's help.'
I still laugh every time I remember that."
Note: Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.