Dictionary

femsplain en · VERB

Etymology

From feminist + -splain. Compare mansplain, womansplaining.

Meanings

1. To explain feminist concepts or a feminine perspective, especially when done in a condescending manner or to explain something the listener already knows, presuming that he has an inferior understanding of it merely because he is male.
   • After about an hour and a half of frustratedly rubbing his temples, struggling to exist in a world he doesn't understand, Glen sits on a couch alongside his daughter's friend Zasha, who femsplains to him that "we're all perverts." Girls are just attracted to older guys, she says as his mouth goes limp. 2017 November 9, Georgia S. Kaufman, “I Hate You, I Love You, Daddy: Thoughts on the Louis CK Movie You May Never Get to See”, in The Stranger:
   • Don't try to reinvent what the Internet has already done. Did I femsplain it sufficiently? 2015 January 12, “Is it 'lady lecturing' or 'femsplaining'?”, in Los Angeles Times:
   • When you femsplain feminism to your friends, make sure you don't femsplain what's wrong with other women; rather, femsplain what's right about you. 2016, Beth Newell, Sarah Pappalardo, How to Win at Feminism: The Definitive Guide to Having It All—And Then Some!, →ISBN:
2. (derogatory) To explain (as a woman) the experience of a man.
   • Yet, it wasn't until Tuesday night's The Daily Show that we learned of a biological struggle that men have when they become parents: dad bods. Women's issues correspondent Kristen Schaal femsplained the fad. 2015 May 13, Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, “'The Daily Show' Skewers the Dad Bod as a Lazy Double Standard”, in Take Part:
   • I'm sure I, and the 99.999999% of men in this country who have never, would never, will never rape or harm a woman, need it. You've heard of mansplaining, right? When a man tries to explain rape/sexual assault/etc. to a female rape survivor? Okay, well you're femsplaining rape to a male rape survivor. 2014 June 6, Robin Wilson, “Why Colleges Are on the Hook for Sexual Assault”, in Chronicle of Higher Education:

Forms

Coordinates

mansplain

Deriveds

femsplainer

Relateds

womansplaining · mansplaining

Synonyms

womansplain