ABSTRACT
The term “mansplaining” has become a viral sensation because for many women it has given words to an experience that we often live: our capacities, skills and expertise are often questioned or dismissed because of the body they are embedded in which is a woman’s body. Mansplaining is an expression of the persistent gender inequality and symbolic violence that is practised every day.
This chapter discusses, from a critical point of view, social practices which for many years passed unnoticed as the norm and the “normal”. Mansplaining, manspreading and gaslighting (or bropriating) are political practices which sustain and reproduce the masculine material, discursive and affective hegemonies over women. These practices are profoundly embodied, affect our experiences and show how power and emotions circulate among and within genders.
