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“Mansplaining” is a catchy albeit overused word that describes the tendency of men to view themselves as smarter and more qualified than women, and explain simple concepts to them in patronising, irritating ways. It is really difficult, if you are a woman, to deny the existence of this phenomenon. Men are often less on board with it—and usually more than willing to, uh, explain why.Enter Australian opinion columnist Phil Barker, “a regular commentator on the lives and style of Australian men” who is currently writing a book about “man stuff” and penned an article in today’s Age declaring that, actually, “mansplaining is something men and women are guilty of doing.”Barker recounts a single event he endured “years ago” in which a waitress refused to believe that he was able to order food his young daughter would enjoy. She condescendingly asked him where his wife was, and why he had ordered olives for a toddler. Sounds like a bummer. Unfortunately, under the conditions of patriarchy, men are often assumed to make inferior primary carers.Rather than taking this experience as an enlightening insight into the casual dismissiveness women are subjected to on a daily basis, Barker choses to interpret it as proof that men and women are equally as patronising.“My problem was I had been lectured by someone who, because of my sex, assumed I knew nothing about a subject that I could be called an expert on. It's absolutely infuriating,” he writes.Barker proposes that we stop using the word “mansplaining” and replace it with a fun new term that applies to everybody equally, and would probably work well in a society where men and women are on a more even playing field: "jerksplaining".“Jerksplaining happens to all of us, men and women," he helpfully adds. "I have been Jerksplained to by both men and women all my life. There are jerksplainers, jerk-authors, and jerk offs and they can be both male and female."It’s true! Jerks, they’re everywhere. Including newspaper opinion sections.
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