Some men have an almost compulsion-like need to explain the most basic things to women, even when it’s mind-numbingly obvious. The more common term for this effect is “mansplaining,“ and if you’ve never had this happen to you, strap in, you’re in for a ride.

We’ve gathered the worst, most infuriating stories of women dealing with rampant mansplaining from across the internet. So get comfortable as you scroll through, prepare to roll your eyes in disbelief, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section down below.

#1

My period.

I was in bed with flu and a kidney infection, and then I got my period. Due to me being floored in bed, I hadn’t had chance to do my usual shopping and only had one tampon left. My ex called on his way home from work and asked if I needed anything picking up. I said yes, tampons please. He huffed and puffed, and said it was gross and suggested other options (he could pick me up and drive me to the supermarket so I could buy them myself. He gave up when I explained blood and gravity).

He called me from the tampon aisle and whispered, “I’m here. Which ones do you need?”. I explained and he was about to put them in the basket. He was like, “hmm there’s orange ones here” so I asked what orange ones are. He said, “super plus plus”. I said, “nope too much. Just regular and super please”. Then he said, “babe I dunno if you know but there is a *lot* of blood”. I know my flow ffs! I had to stay calm and polite though because he’d just leave without buying any if I kicked off. I said no thanks, just the ones I asked for.

He came home with the orange ones. “Trust me, these will be better for you”. I had no other choice but to use them. When I tell you it was like pulling a London bus from my v****a every time I changed one, I’m not exaggerating. And he wonders why he’s my ex.

Image credits: anon

#2

What yoga is. I’ve been teaching yoga for 18 years, training teachers for 12. He went to a class once.

Image credits: Jetztinberlin

#3

Most recently I had a guy try to explain to me that postpartum depression was caused by the mother’s natural instinct to know the baby has issues. Like in nature where animals will neglect a sickly offspring. I don’t think he actually knew what postpartum was.

Image credits: WGiK

#4

An ex tried to tell me that I should just squeeze my period out all at once so I could be done with it and we could have s*x.

Dude, if I could, *I WOULD*. I don’t bleed for a week straight because I *like* it.

Image credits: snorkel1446

#5

A guy tried to explain how wreaths worked to me, pointing out the hook on the back was for ease of hanging.

Image credits: wasabi_weasel

#6

Urgh, this one is the worst. My husband tried to tell me that PMS wasn’t an actual thing. It was just made up by the patriarchy to oppress women and used for comedy effect in misogynistic movies and TV shows. I think he thought he was being super supportive to the cause.

I was like, wtf are you talking about?? Haven’t you noticed that I have an explosive mood swings the same three days out of every month. He tried to tell me that was just me and that’s my personality. He’s lucky it wasn’t the wrong time of the month.

Image credits: 83_RedBalloons

#7

Recently my roommate locked her keys in her car, while getting gas. I drive over and she is at the 1st pump, a guy is parked behind her at another pump and I park behind him. I get out with her keys. She has keyless entry and shouldn’t be able to lock her keys inside the car.

So I ask, “How did you even do that?” The guy behind her immediately replies, “just push the one that has the unlock button on it.”

I looked at him and said, “Yeah, I know. I’m asking her how she locked her keys in the car. Not how to use the clicker.” Seriously, did he just try to mansplain to me how to unlock a door?

Image credits: BostonGreekGirl

#8

I have a a3 TDI and nearly every time I go to get diesel I get a guy telling me I’m putting the wrong fuel in. So I just go into detail about what TDI means and they always get offended like if you knew what it was why did you run up to me in a huff to “save me from ruining my car”. I have started to go “oh no!! S**t!! I’m putting diesel into a diesel car!!!”.

Image credits: ScornfulChicken

#9

A guy from my physics class shared his solution to a problem in our semesters whatsapp group. I told him he’d made an error (he had) forgetting the lower bound of the integration. He proceded to mansplain how integration works to me until he realized that I was actually correct.

Image credits: kleinesFragezeichen

#10

An eraser …

Was buying a pencil on a flea market. As I was about to leave the guy next to the seller yelled “Young Miss! Miss! Hey Miss! Do you know what that is? *points to pencil*”

“… a pencil?”, I asked confuzzled.

“No! *giggles in superior mind* You see, tis an eraser, it makes the pencil writing go away.”, he explained, as if he is sharing mindblowing revelations with me.

“… uh, ok?”, I mutter and proceed to slowly walk away from that crazy guy.

I am over 30 years old – I know what a darn eraser is, champ.

Image credits: 0010-encoded

#11

I’ve had basic cooking concepts explained to me, such as deglazing a pan. Did you know that adding liquid to the pan removes the stuff stuck to the bottom? Well it does! This after I had cooked several meals with him, including broths and pan fried dishes which involved deglazing.

Image credits: Alouette2012

#12

Had a man mansplain to me what it’s like to live in Asia.

He is white and has not stayed in an Asian country for more than 2 weeks.

I grew up in a small island in South East Asia for most of my life. My ethnicity is Chinese and I grew up around the chinese culture along with the nuances of the culture in different locations. My family was low income.

His experience was that of a tourist. And he learned mandarin for 6 months. I speak mandarin and the 3 different dialects of it (my first language is still English though).

He was the general manager of my workplace. I totally snapped at him and said “Are you seriously mansplaining the Asian/Chinese culture to an American Chinese who grew up in Asia?!?”

He was at least embarrassed.

Image credits: KlimbingCat

#13

Coworker randomly tried to mansplain the average temperature for San Diego, which is my hometown and he’s never been there….

Image credits: anon

#14

Where my house is.

Background info: Where we used to live there was a train station, on one side of the station was a row of small shops- bakery, butcher, florist- just one of those little strips, on the other side an Irish pub, a burger place and an Indian restaurant. We lived behind the shops, then a little further down from us was a school.

When my daughter was at daycare she made friends with this little boy, his mum invited us over for a playdate, we went, had a lovely afternoon. Then her husband came home from work, we were chatting and he asks where abouts we live. I go “just behind the shops near (train station)” he gives me this look then says “OH YOU MEAN THE RESTAURANTS ON (road the restaurants connect to)” I say no, the other side, behind the shops. He says no, I can’t live there, there’s a school there. I say yes there is a school there, but there are a couple of streets in between the shops and the school and we are in between there. He says no, I must be confusing the shops and the restaurants, what I must mean is either the restaurants, OR the next train station along on the line where there is a large supermarket- because there are houses behind there.

We just kept going back and forth until I went home, to my house, which apparently wasn’t located where I thought it was, despite me going to and from it every day for 4 years.

Image credits: t12aq

#15

I dunno if it counts, but my father once tried to explain to me, how I should apply my lipstick. I was 21 then. I just asked him, if he ever used lipstick himself. He said “no, but I know better”.

Image credits: Lintashi

#16

A few years ago a friend and I stayed in a hostel in Berlin. For context, I am from the North East of England and my friend is from Northern Ireland. I am from an area where Hadrian’s Wall (the border that the Roman Empire built to keep out the Celtic) still partially stands. A super important piece of history that all Northerners know the importance of. Similarly, my friend is from Belfast and was born just after the Good Friday Agreement (which led to the ceasefire in NI).Anyways, we met these two American guys who were around our age in the hostel and we all got talking about our hometowns and local history. One of the guys was super sound but the other guy was completely insufferable. He began to mansplain to me the ‘insignificance’ of Hadrian’s wall to British and European history… And then began to mansplain to my friend the Irish troubles as if she was completely ignorant and had not had to live through the after-effects of the violence.

I’m always up for a bit of healthy discussion but I literally had to tell this guy to f**k off. His justification was that he was a history major, therefore his knowledge from his studies trumped our lived experiences. So my response was that if he was going to justify his shocking opinions with his history degree, then my politics degree meant that I was justified in saying that the US constitution was insignificant (I obviously don’t think this lol but I was just trying to show him how stupid his argument was).

#17

I just had a random dude mansplain to me why a certain stock that I have several hundred thousand dollars invested in is a good investment. OK, dude. Also, this mansplaining was triggered by the mention that my husband used to work as a director for that company.

Image credits: ariaxwest

#18

How to drive a manual

As he sat passenger in my manual truck

Which I had driven my manual car down to pick up

He needed a ride due to having neither a vehicle nor a license

I have driven stick my whole life. I also happen to be a heavy equipment operator. I happen to know a thing or two about driving ***my own d**n vehicle***

… I offered to let him walk home.

Image credits: pale_delicate_flower

#19

The worst that I’ve had mansplained to me is reading. Apparently I read so fast that I don’t really read properly and therefore I can’t absorb the material. I sat and read the first Harry Potter in around an hour in front of him. Then he questioned me on the plot, when I could tell him all about it he accused me of having already read it. Now I’m older I’d just tell him to sod off!

Image credits: iamcaptaintrips

#20

My own body’s fat distribution. I posted in the plastic surgery sub about my chin lipo and Kybella experience and some dude (without a medical degree I might add) commented that lipo/Kybella was not the right move and I should have just lost weight. He then went on to say in the comments I’m clearly “considerably overweight” and even threw out “obesity”. I was a few pounds overweight at the time of the surgery, but definitely not considerably overweight. I wasn’t then nor have I ever been obese. Plus size, yes, but not obese. I also had had the double chin since I was a 5’7”, 115 pound, anorexic 14 year old. It knew from experience that even when I’m underweight, I have it. It’s just where I store any fat I have. But CLEARLY random dude on Reddit with no medical degree who doesn’t know me knows more about my body than both I and a certified medical doctor do. Give me a break 🙄.

Image credits: BroadwayWhore

#21

My boyfriend showed me a video of a girl jumping on a trampoline and she peed her pants. I commented how she must have really had to go and then he went into a long thing of “oh you don’t know? Women accidentally pee all the time” I said “yeah maybe after they have a kid but most women don’t just pee their pants all the time” and he told me I was wrong.

Image credits: anon

#22

Social anthropology. I’m doing my phd in social anthropology, but apparently my brother who has a bachelor degree in philosophy knows what social anthropology, something I’ve studied for 7 years, is better than I. My former boss knew about Cambodian culture better than I even though he has been there for 2 weeks as a tourist and I lived there for 6 months together with locals (I mean the same house, even the same room). 6 months is way too little to make me an expert but still…

Image credits: Dovile7411

#23

I have also had a friend explain the costs of higher education to me. She has never worked in the field. I am an admin with 25 years of experience, which includes pricing and grants. It is a common problem with her. She also claimed to know more about reproductive health than a Dr I had specializing in the field from Columbia University. He was internationally ranked, but she had researched fertility and knew more than that Dr. I could go on and on and on with that one.

Image credits: ann102

#24

I went to the hardware store looking for a specific size screw for a diy project I was working on. I knew exactly what I was looking for and thought it’d be and easy and quick trip. As I’m looking for my screws a man next to me that seemed to be doing the same (not an employee) asked me what I was looking for.

I replied (and this was the only thing this man heard me say )

“ 2”wood screws”

Without knowing what I need them for or what I’m working on he goes into a verbal frenzy on screw and how they’re used and what they’re for and that I really should be using 3/4 instead or that I should probably use whatever the f**k else blah blah..

The whole time I’m just silent trying to see how far this will go. He then hands me a box of whatever screws he’s recommending because that will work so much better, grabs what he came for, and said he was always happy to help.

I gave him a “the audacity” half smile/half laugh that he probably mistook for gratitude and left.

As soon as he was gone I put back the box he gave me, grabbed what I came for, and went home and built our current bed frame.

Image credits: Waste_Mammoth_4312

#25

I had a man explain to me that I’ve never been to India. I’ve spent 6 months of my life in India.

I met this guy in a bar and we found a mutual love of travel, so I mentioned I loved my time in India and he told me NO woman could possibly enjoy traveling there, therefore I’ve never been. And any attempt to convince him (relaying my past itineraries for example) was just me “trying to impress him”. His friends apologized to me later.

Image credits: ALasagnaForOne

#26

Boyfriend mansplained that on a heavy day when I was changing a tampon every hour this was too often and I could wear them for up to 8 hours (he was annoyed when we were out that I had to keep looking for a toilet). He was all like just put one in and forget about it till we get back home tonight.

*because thats what it says on the box*.

Image credits: BECKYISHERE

#27

I am an artist and had a male customer explain a spine to me while working on his commission. Mind you I have 15 years of experience. He also explained to me in excruciating length how my time is my most precious resource and how he wanted to manage his replies to maximum efficiency further wasting my time.

I had someone explain to me that I must be wrong on my pricing because my currency (€) didn’t match and I quote ” dollars of the united states of America money” I told him after he asked what 10€ would be in freedom money that it’s 12$ (can’t even Google huh?) and he proceeded to tell me that 1€ must be 2$ because 12 and 10 have 2 as common divisor. And I told him decimal numbers exist, he got really pissy and canceled his order but not without making me lose more braincells on the way.

Had a dude explain to me how well my deck is built and what to pay attention to and how lucky I am to have such a skilled dad. I waited till he was done to tell him I built it.

Image credits: extra_olive_oil

#28

A man once tried to mansplain my OWN name to me. Told me it was French instead of Creole because my heritage can’t be Creole if I’ve never personally been to New Orleans.

Image credits: AWitchBetwixt

#29

Clothing manufacturing, after I had explained why bras are so expensive (he’d asked this question about a FOURTEEN DOLLAR bra his girlfriend got), and mentioned that I sew. He kept ranting on about “so little cloth shouldn’t be that much” and how the quality of a $3 pair of briefs is good enough for him, so bras should cost that much, too. OK, buddy, you go price all the materials, spend the time doing trial and error to design a bra that is comfortable and doesn’t result in weird pointy or even square b***s, then assemble it, and then come back and tell me how much that whole process should cost.

Image credits: SaffronBurke

#30

I had someone mansplain to me that caulk couldn’t be clear. He drove a truck for a hardware store, so he knew what he was talking about. Meanwhile, I had recently re-caulked my bathroom with clear caulk. Idk, maybe he was thinking about grout?

Image credits: Biteme75

#31

A 25 year old insurance broker tried to mansplain the brokerage market to me. I’ve been in the business since he was 3, but he still felt the need.

Image credits: Competitive-Ad9032

#32

I was looking to buy some paracetamol in a supermarket. An older man wandered over and launched unprompted into an explanation of brand name vs generic and how I’d be getting fleeced by paying for one over the other. I knew this but thanked him anyway.

However he wouldn’t leave and kept explaining it as if I didn’t understand. When I ignored him and selected one he then asked if it was for lady troubles…. I left pretty quickly after that.

#33

A three-ring binder. I asked a male higher-up for a report. He pulled it from his bookshelf (it was in a three-ring binder) and asked me if I knew how “this worked”. I was trying to figure out what “this” he was referring to and a little afraid he was about to ask for some quid pro quo type of deal over a freaking report when he started to explain how a binder worked.

#34

Lol I had a smart a*s student who tried to explain to me- his EFL teacher- what a double negative was, because he misunderstood the reason I was unsatisfied that his “rebuttal” of his partner’s work basically amounted to “nuh uh”.

I had to laugh, at the time, but I also asked him flat out which one of us was the native speaker, and to stop taking over me, so I could explain what the actual problem with his work was.

#35

One of my friends tried to explain picture frames to me. We were going shopping and I’d mentioned that I wanted to try to find some so I could print some pictures out. For some reason he assumed that in my 22 years of life, I’d never been able to figure out how people get photos in those cute little boxes. He began to explain in great detail that picture frames come in sizes like 5 x 7, so that means you should put a 5 x 7 picture in it, and you can get that size either by printing it 5 x 7 or cutting down a bigger- … It got to the point that he was then explaining dimensions and using a ruler to me when I finally snapped at him.

#36

Pregnancy. I have had SO MANY MEN tell me what to expect, how it’s only going to get worse, etc etc. just based off knowing pregnant women (not even being with/living with a pregnant woman). It makes me ragey.

#37

Not a specific example,, just my life in general. I am an economist, I have a bachelors and masters in economics and have been an economic researcher and consultant for a few years now.

Anytime I tell a guy that is my job, he will explain economics to me. They often try to explain the current economic state through the stock markets (not accurate, only 1 variable of a million variable equation), they usually tell me that things such as buying power, household expenditure data, and under/over employment trends don’t speak to the big picture and don’t really matter in economic health.

I’ve stopped telling people I’m an economist and instead say that I’m a linguist (my side passion), because no one knows anything about the subject and therefore can’t “teach me” based off Wikipedia and Joe Rogan podcasts.

#38

A couple of years ago my Lyft driver (who self-admittedly had never been outside the USA, and had been on 5 airplane rides in his life), thought I really needed to know how early I need to be at the airport – in big cities, international and regional airports. We were on our way TO the airport, he had already commented on my well-used suitcase, we’d discussed what I did and the ridiculous amount of travel I did (which is how I’d learned how little he had), and he STILL had to explain to me how to get to the airport(s) on time.

#39

I’m a welder with 9 years of experience. Something had been wrong with my machine, but maintenance didn’t take me seriously. Then one day it shorted out inside and blew up. So then the guy comes over, and tried to mansplain that “electricity can k**l you.” No s**t, really? I never knew! Good lord.

#40

My own job. I am an attending physician in the ER of a busy academic trauma center. I am board-certified in emergency medicine and emergency medical services. I was a paramedic before I went to medical school, and have kept that certification current (for twenty years). I am an operational medical director, meaning that I actually go on calls with the EMS agencies I oversee. So I know a little bit about EMS. I had a medical student who was also an EMT try to mansplain EMS medical direction to me on his first shift in the ER.

I didn’t even have time to start dismantling him before the nearby female paramedic who overheard the whole thing ate him alive. Rumour has it he’s on his third or fourth trip around the world frantically backpedaling.

#41

Explained how a multimeter could measure my resistance in Kelvins.

Dude I have a traditional engineering degree.

#42

I used to drive a car that was notorious for the transmission going out around 100,000 miles. Went on a date with a dude who felt the need to mansplain this to me. Told him, “Yeah, I know, I’ve got it covered.” He went on. And on. Told him “Mine blew at 95,000. It’s already been replaced. I know.” Passed on a second date.

#43

Long hair- did you know when you grow your hair long then you need to dry it or style it EVERY DAY otherwise it doesn’t look nice?

#44

My own period/menstrual cycle and how midol with help with all of my symptoms. It helps. But not with everything my body goes through during my monthly.

#45

How much yardage I needed to sew a garment for him. I’m an experienced seamstress. He had the gall to tell me I only needed 1 yard to make a button up shirt for a full grown man. “Any more fabric and I was obviously being wasteful. If I knew more about factory sewing, I could be more efficient and stop using so much fabric.”.

#46

I worked with I financial planning company. An advisor brought me some paperwork to do a transfer for a locked-in account. I told him I couldn’t process a transfer with what he gave me, explained exactly what was needed and why. He argued, but then gave up and went back to his office. He must have made some calls because he came back an hour or so later and explained to me, in great detail, exactly what I had originally explained to him. I was fuming!

#47

I’m an attorney. My father was talking about a lease, and for some reason decided I needed leases and how they worked in that state (where I’m licensed) explained to me. I just stared in shock for a minute and asked him, “You know I’m licensed attorney, right? Why in the world are you trying to explain leases to me?” No answer, but he hasn’t tried to explain legal things to me again. Wasn’t even trying to match his rudeness, just so shocked it slipped out.

#48

I’m old, the guy at the grocery store thinks I need to be told how to pick up my bags. I quest I was doing it wrong. Told me to only pick up the bag from the bottom, which I was already doing. Got so mad I told him Thanks but my Mother let’s me do the shopping now, for the last 50 years.

#49

A recent one. My partner tried to explain how antibodies work. I went to medical school. He does not understand how antibodies work. He doesn’t do it often enough to outweigh the good points.

#50

How to brush my teeth.

A new (to me) dental hygienist, after a routine cleaning with no concerns, at a dentist office I have gone to for years (my records are right on the screen) felt the need to explain how to brush my teeth. He can clearly see that I have no cavities, gum disease, etc. I am a woman in my mind-thirties who hasn’t had a cavity in close to a decade. Just, why? I finally asked him “what part of my routine cleaning has led you to believe that I don’t know how to brush my teeth?” I did not schedule my next cleaning with him.

#51

I had a first year med student explain to me that the influenza is the flu. I was 30 at the time. My response was gee wilikers really!

#52

Recently a guy mansplained FGM to me after I pointed out that they (the men in the conversation) hijacked a conversation about FGM to talk about circumcision and had the repeated hall to compare the two like they’re even remotely equal. After that he also said hijacking the conversation like that was a sign of “empathy”.

#53

I am a woman with a CADD certificate had a man try and explain to me what triangles are when we were doing a project to make a bridge model to show that we knew how to support weight so that we could apply it to a larger scale project to make a couch with unconventional materials.

Same guy didn’t listen to our (female) teacher and made a couch even though the word “bridge” was said at least 7 times before he was allowed to touch the materials. Even I said couch at least 5 times during the building process. I would easily call that mansplaining.

#54

Whenever any dude at the gym explains to me that I need to do lower weight, more reps to tone. Who the fuck said I was here to tone? Why are you telling me things I already know? Who asked?

#55

About a semester before I finished grad school, an older male coworker told me I wasn’t allowed to have an opinion about our work projects until I earned my graduate degree. He did not have a degree himself.

Not strictly mansplaining, but it drove me insane

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