Have you ever coined a word? I’ve never coined a word… until now. Or, at least I thought I had. When I first conceived of this topic a few months ago I did a Google search for ‘vaginasplaining’ and came up with nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. I was excited. I had never coined a word, and here I now had. Sorta, but not really, though there is precious little examples or definitions available. Primarily, people just seem to use it as a clever Twitter hashtag with no actual definition.
‘Vaginasplaining’… some call it ‘womansplaining’… is, of course, similar to ‘mansplaining’. According to the Urban Dictionary, ‘mansplaining’ is defined as…
When a woman is not smart enough to understand something, so a man explains it to her.
Woman: The wage gap shows that females are being payed less for the same job.
Man: The wage gap is only showing the average pay of man and woman, it does not count for hours worked or different jobs.
Woman: STOP MANSPLANING!!!
I’m pretty sure that that’s just what people do. Men do it to women, yes. Men also do it to men. Women do it to women, and women do it to men. Especially in relationships where the two people will often snipe at each other in this manner trying to establish some sort of subconscious emotional dominance. It could also simply be an insecure person trying to fit in to the group and/or show that they are indeed intelligent, too. It’s nothing special or uncommon, but trying to shame one select group for it is nothing short of insidiously hypocritical. It’s actually a form of ‘*-splaining’, itself.
Warning, serious political example to follow: We here at The Grump generally try to avoid political topics, but sometimes politics invades daily life… even curmudgeonly life… so much that it cannot be avoided. The recent public debate about sexual assault and rape during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing where women told men that false accusation was simply not an issue because it’s “so rare”, was an absolutely perfect example of ‘vaginasplaining’.
Ok, back to curmudgeonism: Anytime a woman suggests she can do something better, or knows more about a topic, simply because of traditional gender roles and she’s a woman, that’s ‘vaginasplaining’. Anytime that a woman belittles a man (or anyone, really) because she’s knows better based on generic factors, that’s ‘vaginasplaining’ (differing body parts excepted). Anything from a woman directed at a man intending to be dismissive or belittling, where the implication is because she’s a she and he’s a he, is ‘vaginasplaining’.
This word, ‘vaginasplaining’, needs to be adopted and used more frequently. Orrrrrr, ya know, we could just get off each other’s backs and start treating each other better, and stop being so uptight.
Naaaaaah!
Is it bad to be so annoyed all the time? I mean, c’mon, is everybody else really that… brain dead? Well, yes, many are. Around me, it seems. But not all, let’s be curmudgeonly fair. I have even had my own moments of dumbness, though only a couple, and mine were completely justifiable. No jury would ever convict me.
Ken The Grump fancies himself an observer. A person who notices and notes behaviors of people around him, especially patterns in groups of people. Things that most people don’t notice, or when you point it out to them they say, “Oh yeah, now that you mention it…”
There’s not much to start with, because, well, the title kind of says it all. So, here we go.
Bacon.
Part of me wants technological advance to… not stop, per se… but slow down a bit. Maybe it’s me, but I would like to, you know, spend some time just doing things and getting things done without having to spend time keeping up with and learning something new every time I turn around. Is that too much to ask?
I give up.
…or the lack thereof.