After a video of a female golf pro having her technique critiqued went viral, we explore the rise of ‘mansplaining’
WORDS VERONIQUE HAWKSWORTH, SHONA SIBARY. PHOTOS: GETTY (MAIN PHOTO POSED BY MODELS), INSTAGRAM @ GEORGIAGOLFCOACH, SHUTTERSTOCK. *POLL BY YOUGOV
We’ve all been there. In the middle of doing something that we’ve done many times before, only to feel a tap on our shoulder before suffering the unwanted advice from a man, telling us we are doing it all wrong. In fact, it happens so often, this annoying male trait even has a name: Mansplaining. And bad news, even high-achieving sportswomen aren’t immune to it. Just recently, golf instructor and PGA pro Georgia Ball captured the moment a male golfer criticised her technique and her video went viral on TikTok. The clip was viewed more than 10 million times, with women across the world wincing as a male voice – off camera – chipped in with unwanted tips on her golf swing, and an exasperating attempt to correct her.
Everyone is guilty of assuming they know it all from time to time, and Georgia took her fellow golfer’s comments in her stride – she has since said she can ‘laugh about it now’. But many of us are heartily sick of having our capabilities questioned.
So do we really need to put up with this patronising and belittling behaviour? Woman delves deeper.
‘MEN SHOULD MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS’
Writer Shona Sibary, 52, lives in Chichester
There can’t be a woman on the planet who hasn’t been mansplained to at some point in her life, and if you’re married – well, it can feel just as familiar as dirty socks next to the laundry basket and a toothpaste tube squeezed the wrong way.
As a word, mansplaining – when a man dishes out unwanted advice in a patronising manner – may only have entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2018, but it’s a phenomenon as old as time. I’ve been married 25 years this year and my husband, Keith, has been teaching a masterclass in it for pretty much a quarter of a century.
He works full-time outside the house. I freelance from home with the flexibility that brings and have always taken on the lion’s share of domestic chores and childcare. Despite the fact he rarely picks up a dishcloth or cleans a loo, this doesn’t stop him from having very strong opinions on how these things should be done.
Wash your mouth out
I remember one occasion when he offered to mop the kitchen floor. God, I so wish he hadn’t. It’s
