Mansplaining

I was once accused of mansplaining.

That is, I was accused of being a man, explaining something to a woman, in a manner that yet another woman regarded as sexist and patronizing.

Implied in this accusation was the groundless assumption that this was a systematic defect in my character resulting from some inherent disregard for the intelligence and/or education of half of the planet’s population of people.

It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

In my mind, l was being a person, explaining something to a moron, in a simple-to-understand manner that another moron, one that I had little regard for, regarded as sexist and patronizing.

Implied in this was an unstated conjecture that there was a systematic defect in the second moron’s character.

What we need, clearly, is an equivalent to Section 18C of Australia’s Racial Vilification Act. Something along the lines of:

“It is unlawful for a person to have an offensive thought;
(1) In the hypothetical circumstance where that offensive thought were to influence an action, and
(2) Where said action would reasonably likely, in all circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people
(3) Regardless of whether the action takes place or not.”