ladyblog

hugovk commented on the word ladyblog

ladyblog, n.

Slate, 23 February 2016:

The saga began in 2008, when Rebecca Solnit published an essay called “Men Explain Things to Me.” Though Solnit didn’t use the word mansplain, she recounted an anecdote in which a man—“with that smug look I know so well … eyes fixed on the fuzzy far horizon of his own authority”—proceeded to enlighten her as to the contents of her own book. Soon, the term mansplain was kicking around in Livejournal comments and ladyblogs. It meant something like “to declaim, as a male and in a patronizing fashion, on a subject about which you know little, to a woman who knows more.” Jezebel gave mansplaining its own topic tag. Citizen Radio introduced “The Adventures of Mansplainer,” a boldhearted gent with the courage and acuity to set ladies straight on catcalling and workplace sexism. The Tumblr Academic Men Explain Things to Me carved out a safe space for “women to recount their experience being mansplained, in academia and elsewhere.” Gleeful meme-ophiles were treated to the suave paternalism and hard-bodied fatuity of “Mansplaining Paul Ryan.”

March 1, 2016