Recently a panel discussion on sexism in Indian comic industry had only one woman on the panel, to discuss incidentally why Amazon Prime had signed 14 male comics to release the one hour specials. The panel was widely derided, especially when the woman panellist was repeatedly interrupted by others. Another picture that went viral earlier this year had seven men sign away the reproductive rights and choices of women in the US. The author stated, “This photograph is what patriarchy looks like – a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded.”
The sexism is pervasive. World Science festival was concluded a few weeks ago and one of the most watched clips from panel discussion called, ‘Pondering the Imponderables’ had Dr. Veronika Hubeny, a theoretical physicist at UC Davis. She was again the only woman on the panel – quite common now a days without any sense of irony. Yet the worst was yet to come. Dr Hubeny was repeatedly interrupted by a male panellist attempting to explain her own theories to her. Ultimately it prompted an audience member to call out, “Let her speak!” This was met by applause.
Recently Ranbir Kapoor came under fire when he constantly spoke over his co star Katrina Kaif and mansplained her own character to her during the promotions of their latest film, prompting her to observe that “…he wont let me finish my sentences…you do realise you are talking about my character when I am sitting right here?” Kapoor, since then, has apologised.
Across the globe, the issue of men not letting women talk became pertinent when Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, was cut off by Republican senators during Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. This was the second time she was interrupted during a course of few days. It was seen as both sexist and racist. Again, when Arianna Huffngton, an Uber Director, spoke of the importance of increasing number of women on the board, another board member David Boderman remarked that it would mean more talking. It must be noted that Uber is facing charges of sexual harassment in the workplace and a complete failure to address the same.
Mansplaining has become a universal experience for women in the workplace and even outside of it. Talented, intelligent women are repeatedly and condescendingly interrupted and men speak over them. In work place where often numbers of men far exceed numbers of women, this is even more common. Patriarchy in the society runs the entire gamut from casual sexism to sexual harassment and assault. Mansplaining extends to taking credit for women’s work and ideas, dismissing her only to appreciate the same idea from another man, and speaking on her behalf even when issues expressly concern women.
In fact this phenomenon is so common and routine that an app has been created to track how many times women are interrupted by men in a given conversation. The app called Woman Interrupted was inspired in part by the first presidential debate where Donald Trump continually interrupted Hillary Clinton.
Some recent hilarious examples of mansplaining come from Twitter. When Dr Katherine Mack tweeted her concern over climate change she was accosted by a man asking her to ‘learn some actual science’ and called global warming a ‘scam’. To which she responded, “I dunno, man, I already went and got a PhD in astrophysics. Seems like more than that would be overkill at this point.” She holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Princeton and studied undergraduate physics at Caltech.
Nirupama Menon Rao, a former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to US and China tweeted about history of 1962 and urged for “quiet, steadily steered diplomacy.” This prompted a 19 year old commerce graduate to tell her, “I think U have shallow reading and information about India- China diplomatic relations. Go a bit deep this will be all clear. (sic)”
Journalist Casey Johnston wrote an article where she examined why schools aren’t providing computer science classes. She tweeted the link to the same with her views on the lack of women in technology only to have a man telling her to “read the full article”. She shot back- “I wrote that article.”
In another instance a UKIP donor, Arron Banks, mansplained Roman history to Professor Mary Beard. Beard is a Professor of Classics at University of Cambridge. Banks claimed that fall of Rome was caused by immigration. When Beard disputed his claim he proclaimed that he had studied, “Roman history extensively” and that she doesn’t have a “monopoly on history” He then proceeded to give her a history lecture based on the “experts I read at school”
In such an environment when women do speak up or take a stand, especially if its for their rights and against the prevailing patriarchal status quo, she either faces the wrath of the establishment or is widely ridiculed – an attempt to diminish her opinions. Recent, absolutely horrifying example was seen at IIFA awards, where three entitled men, Karan Johar, Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan, decided to mock Kangana Ranaut for pointing out the obvious- that nepotism exists in Bollywood. After cringe worthy declaration of “Nepotism rocks” Johar literally stated his problem with women who speak, he whined that Kangana “speaks a lot”. The trio were expectedly lambasted. Johar, Khan and Dhawan have since then apologised. The apologies range from ‘just a joke’ to poor explanations about genetics.
Mansplaining has become so ingrained in spaces that most men do it almost automatically and women often internalise it. Both Katrina Kaif and Prof Hubeny for example excused the interruptions and gave benefit of doubt to the mansplainers. Often women do notice but chose to ignore rather than confront because they fear backlash and humiliation from privileged men, like Kangana Ranaut witnessed recently. Patriarchy has conveniently peddled the cliché that women speak a lot or associated gossip with women through jokes and stereotypes. Women who do speak up are either derided as ‘hysterical’, ‘nag’, ‘shrewish’ or just ‘emotional’. Johar for instance accused Ranaut for ‘playing the victim card’. Women who assert themselves are deemed ‘bossy’, men who do so are praised for ‘leadership qualities’.
Society demands that if women need to be heard they need to qualified and accommodating. If men want to be heard they just need to be men. Nothing stops men from schooling women at any chance possible. Sometimes they take upon themselves to explain to women about issues concerning women themselves. Twitter is flooded with examples of men explaining childbirth and period pain to women. Dangerously this extends to powerful men taking upon themselves to decide women’s sexuality, her dress, her reproductive choices etc. This culture often starts innocuously – when a man interrupts a woman and gets away with it. We as a society need to call out the mansplainers. We need to let her speak!
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NEWSD and NEWSD does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
