Viliam_Bur comments on LW Women Submissions: On Misogyny - Less Wrong

27 [deleted] 10 April 2013 07:54PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 11 April 2013 04:29:18PM 0 points [-]

But I don't see any good reason to make the phenomenon about the relationship between genders.

I sense a fallacy of gray coming.

I'm male. My male friends "mansplain" to me all the time. I "mansplain" to them. But most of my friends are highly intelligent, opinionated women-- and all of them "mansplain" to me too.

The reason for distinguish this genre of discourse (which one might merely call "being an ass") from mansplaining and its related categories (e.g., the other day I overheard in a Starbucks a guy solicit two Asian students, ask them their "ethnic origin", and then reassure them in all seriousness that "We'll send that Dennis Rodman guy back to patch things up.") is that the explanation revolves around the minority party's everyday life. Therefore, e.g., your male friends don't mansplain to you (provided you're not a woman) because you all live in the context of being male.

Calling it all merely "being an ass" conceals the political and social mechanisms lurking under the surface of the exchange.

It's a bad epistemic habit and often disrespectful.

The latter -- sometimes. The former? Carving reality at the joints is a good epistemic habit, and I think this does the trick.

But I think it's really absurd to suggest it is something only men do-- to the point of referring to it as "mansplaining".

Of course "being an ass" isn't something only men do but because of the power differential, it's socially acceptable for men to call women out on being wrong, and not the reverse. If you refuse to see the politics, then of course it all looks the same.

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 12 April 2013 08:47:25AM *  10 points [-]

Perhaps we could use a new word "blackstealing" for describing when a black person steals something from a white person.

I assure you that I am fully aware that sometimes also black people steal from black people, or white people from black people, or white people from white people, etc... but that is irrelevant here, because those acts just don't have the same qualia. Blackstealing is a specific phenomenon and deserves its name in our discourse.

(To avoid misunderstanding, this comment is not meant seriously, it just serves to illustrate the offensiveness of "mansplaining". I just had to use an analogy, because offending men is not considered an offense.)

(More meta: This comment is probably just another example of mansplaining. It would have to be written by a woman to deserve a serious thought.)

Comment author: [deleted] 12 April 2013 12:45:23PM *  -2 points [-]

Nice try, but "black crime" (see 1st paragraph) is actually a thing that people study.

Now, if you wanted it to mean specifically racially motivated stealing, there's that too:

Also published by the federal government is the Known Offender's Race by Bias Motivation, 2009.[22] According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Report database, in 2010 58% of hate crime offenders were white (including latinos), 18% of offenders were black, 8.9% were of individuals of multiple races and 1% of offenders were Native Americans.[23] The report also reveals that 48% of all hate crime offenders were motivated by the victim's race, while 18% were based on the victim's religion, and another 18% were based on the victim's sexual orientation.[24] The report states that among hate crime offenses motivated by race, 70% were composed of anti-black bias, while 17.7% were of anti-white bias, and 5% were of anti-Asian or Pacific Islander bias.[24]

Oh well.

(To avoid misunderstanding, this comment is not meant seriously, it just serves to illustrate the offensiveness of "mansplaining". I just had to use an analogy, because offending men is not considered an offense.)

It is a pity your satire fell flat.

EDIT: Also, regarding:

I assure you that I am fully aware that sometimes also black people steal from black people, or white people from black people, or white people from white people, etc... but that is irrelevant here, because those acts just don't have the same qualia.

"Qualia"? Goals, motivations, and revealed preferences (that is, the things that separate "explaining" from "mansplaining" and from "splaning" in general) aren't qualia.

Comment author: Larks 12 April 2013 01:11:49PM 7 points [-]

And because base rates are important, according to the CIA factbook, the US is

white 79.96%, black 12.85%, Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%, two or more races 1.61% (July 2007 estimate)

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