Advice Columnist Has The Perfect Response To Peak Mansplaining

Leave it to a man to mansplain the term mansplaining.

Syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson provided the world with a perfect example of mansplaining, all while putting an actual mansplainer in his place.

On Thursday, Nerdette podcast host Greta Johnsen tweeted a screenshot of an exchange between Dickinson and someone who signed their name Mark R. Bates, National Coalition For Men:

Dearest @AskingAmy, thank you so so so much for this gem. pic.twitter.com/XS7N7stRH6

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Dearest @AskingAmy , thank you so so so much for this gem. pic.twitter.com/XS7N7stRH6
Greta Johnsen (@gretamjohnsen) September 22, 2016

Dear Amy: You used the word mansplaining in your reply to Perplexed. I dont think it means what you think it means.
Mansplaining is a sexist word used by feminists to shut down any debate with a man if they think they cant win with their argument.
Your use of it in your column is offensive to anyone who is capable of a logical discussion.
Mark R. Bates, National Coalition For Men

Dear Mark: Others complained that I had misused the word mansplaining, but you are the only person to mansplain while doing it.
Mansplaining is a slang term used for when men co-opt ideas, thoughts or concepts generated by a woman and then re-explain these concepts back to her in a highly patronizing and expert way. (See above.)

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In her earlier response to Perplexed a woman worried that her husband was cheating Dickinson had used the term to simply refer to a man having to explain something. (She wrote, hes got some mansplaining to do.) However, her newer column makes it pretty clear shes up to date on the more current meaning of the word.

Mansplaining, a concept that evolved out of the discussion surrounding writer Rebecca Solnits 2008 essay Men Explain Things To Me, has helped women put a name to a frustrating pattern of male behavior that previously felt hard to pinpoint. Recently its been used to call out moments such as executive Jamie Dimon mansplaining banking to Sen. Elizabeth Warren , or a dude on Twitter mansplaining the way outer space works to a female astronaut.

The National Coalition For Men is a mens rights group, and someone named Mark Bates does sit on their board of directors. The NCFM didnt immediately respond to a Huffington Post query on whether Bates was actually the mansplainer who mansplained mansplaining.

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