Why “Mansplaining” Is a Human Right

Here is a question: Do feminists only speak to women? Clearly not, as they also need to speak to men and convince men about their ideas. I stress the word “need” here. Why do they need to also speak to men? Well, that is because feminists speak about topics that also concern and directly impact men.

We cannot deny that any substantial alteration in gender roles and rights would affect both genders, given that an altered allocation of rights would tilt the balance of authority and resources shared between the two. Men accustomed to rights and responsibilities allocated to them in a particular manner and proportion may one day suddenly find themselves shouldering more burdens and having certain privileges they used to enjoy curtailed. This may very well be done against their consent and pleasure without anyone ever consulting them or even pretending to care about their opinion.

Does that sound fair? I believe most of us could intuitively answer in the negative.

Let us also take a step back here and ask ourselves something. Could feminists even succeed in driving their agenda without men’s willing cooperation and consent (be they the majority of men or men in positions of power)? What if men got together and said: “Nope, we do not agree. We are not cooperating.” Could the feminist agenda move forward successfully? Perhaps very minimally. 

Let us say, for example, that feminists happen to succeed in introducing specific mandates into law without any (or with minimal) voting support from men (e.g., ensuring an equal representation of genders on boards in corporations, etc.), they would still be unable to drive the social changes which they seek without the willing cooperation of men. This is because they need men to agree with them that rights and burdens should be allocated in the manner feminists espouse.

Now that it is clear that the cooperation of men is required for the success of feminism, we must ask the following question: Do men have a right to express their opinion about matters they strongly believe in and which would also affect them as well? Or should their voices be shut down, and should they be coerced into blindly accepting what feminists say since “mansplaining” is supposedly wrong?

You all could be the judge of that.

The same reasoning also applies to those Muslims riding the “men shouldn’t speak on behalf of women” bandwagon. Please understand that men could be speaking “on behalf of women” because doing so necessarily entails that they speak about themselves too. This is because the relationship between the genders is not merely directly correlated but also intrinsically inseparable.

So to ask men to keep their mouths shut about women’s rights is also asking them to shut up about their own rights. Let us imagine men stopped talking about women’s rights explicitly and only talked about their rights. Imagine men start saying things like: “we men have the right to be in charge of the family household,” and they make no explicit reference to women’s rights (even though they obviously are also talking about women), could we also expect that women keep their mouths shut about men’s rights as well? 

Let us be consistent here. Let us be honest with ourselves here. You cannot speak about women’s rights without also touching upon men’s rights, and evidently, men’s rights are the business of men too! 

This is why speaking out against “mansplaining” is silly, inconsistent, and oppressive.