Fine line right? I don’t know it’s a gender issue always though. I take certain routes from place to place. I might like the view, or there’s something about a road or off ramp I like. I might prefer a longer route that takes the same time as a shorter one- but you are constantly moving or going higher speed than a stop and go route that is shorter. Sometimes I take a longer route because I know the short route has an unprotected left turn- and I prefer to avoid those where possible. The missus does not like this. The law of most computer programs/OS is that if you watch a random person long enough- they’ll annoy you. “Why do they go here to do this instead of there?” “Why don’t they use hot keys?” “Why do they tab through all the fields instead of shift+tabbing back up..?” And so on.
We all have our ways of doing things- they might not be the way others would- or the way most places would teach to do it- but maybe we prefer the method or the result? There is a certain insecurity in assuming that someone trying to be helpful is undermining your intelligence- but due to society traditionally treating women as helpless or ignorant... a certain sensitivity to the perception that you are being “mansplained” to is understandable.
Very rarely my partner will accuse me of mansplaining- usually she will ask a question like “why are you setting up that electronic device in that location?” And I will say something like: “it generates heat. It needs room for air to circulate..” she may get upset (rarely) and say I am “mansplaining” and of course she knows electronics make heat etc... so I will gently say to her- “I am not mansplaining. You asked a question with one answer. If you knew the answer- why did you ask if that isn’t the answer you wanted?” So I mean... yeah... if someone sees you trying to put a fork in an electrical outlet or something that implies you don’t know something- even a basic thing... they might feel the need to mention it. But men should be mindful that our well meaning can sometimes be a trigger because of other social issues.
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