Men are conditioned to think we’re smarter and more relevant than we actually are. This is both a demonstrable truth and the natural result of a society that, for like a hundred different stupid reasons, values men more than women.
It also means we tend to talk over, condescend, or just happily scream unwanted noise at women whether they’ve asked to hear it or not. And while it’s something all men, myself included, have been guilty of, this phenomenon didn’t really hit the the popular lexicon until Rebecca Solnit’s (amazing) 2012 essay “Men Explain Things To Me” launched the phrase “mansplaining”.
Now, in what looks to be both a bit of a PR stunt and a genuine attempt to connect suppressed women with feminist experts, Swedish trade union Unionen has provided an outlet for the problem: the Mansplaining Hotline.
Staffed with politicians, comedians, and scientists, the hotline is currently open to Unionen’s over-600,000 private sector members and opens the floor to practical advice as well as emotional support. While it only runs for this week, the campaign has already done its job by attracting media attention from major international publications.
And on top of being a positive, if tiny, step towards gender equality, this is also a smart move just from a business perspective; unhappy workers are unproductive workers, and maybe even workers who have had it up to here and just quit.
But naturally, there has also been the expected social media outcry from people who somehow can’t do the bare minimum and admit men might have some fucking work to do. Weirdly, they also happen to be men.
Regardless of the verifiable outcomes, and with only a week of operation it’s unlikely there will be many, the hotline will hopefully at least broaden the discussion about gender roles in the workplace, and maybe, hopefully, even give some men pause before we launch into our next rant.
Source: The Guardian.
Photo: MTV.
