More mansplaining on the golf driving range in Liverpool

Hhas already obtained more than ten million views and 26 thousand comments and has already been branded as episode of mansplaining the video posted on social media in which a stranger is heard giving unsolicited advice to Georgia Ball, an English golf professional and teacher. Teachings, moreover, peppered with phrases like “I’ve been playing golf for 20 years” rather imbued with a sense of superiority.

Mansplaining on the golf course

Georgia Ball, PGA professional and teacher, was training in her box on a driving range in Liverpool filmed by a smartphone and then saw herself again, when at a certain point, she hears a male voice starting to explain how to play: «Excuse me, you shouldn’t do that, you should move faster». The athlete, although very perplexed and surprised by that interruption, very politely turns around and tries to explain to the gentleman that she is doing an exercise, the swing change, which golfers regularly do to improve their technique.

“I’ll explain it to you”, those useless and never requested teachings

But the man, without even listening to her, continues with his strictly unsolicited advice on the grounds that he “has been playing for 20 years”. Once again Georgia Ball explains to the man that what she is doing is preparation training. But nothing, after the athlete’s throw, the man does not give up and feels entitled to add: “You see how much better it went” taking credit for the success of the shot.

The golfer’s reaction

Georgia Ball put everything online on TikTok and the video soon left the world of golf to the point of becoming an example of mansplaining, the Anglophone neologism which is defined as the attitude of some men who tend to explain something to a woman because they think they know better. The video became popular online and triggered a reaction from users: in the comments, many women have shared their experiences and their anger at this condescending attitude of men towards women, which is also completely unmotivated.

The criticism for the too kind reaction

Many, however, also criticized Ball for being too polite and for not putting the man in his place. Interviewed by the BBC’s Radio 4, the golfer however explained that it is not really in her nature to seek discussions: «It was an embarrassing conversation, but turning around and saying “I’m a PGA professional” is not like me – he said, adding that – what interests me is only to make golf grow as much as possible».

Mansplaining, how annoying is it?

Phrases like, “You women should understand that…”, “Let me explain”, “Maybe you don’t know that”, said by a man to a woman, accompanied by the use of a slightly higher arrogant and paternalistic tone of voice, are all incipits that immediately betray a sexist attitude and a signal that a mansplaining situation is occurring, intended as an unsolicited explanation or advice. The motivation behind this way of doing things is the all-male belief that they know more than a woman about a certain topic, always and in any case.

Literally mansplaining is composed of two words, man And explanation: the neologism was coined by the American writer Rebecca Solnit in the essay Men explain things to me, published in 2014 with which he brought to global public attention a very frequent phenomenon, but which was very little talked about: that paternalism of which women are victims almost every day.

Widespread cultural phenomenon

The phenomenon is very widespread in certain contextsfor example in some workplaces, where top positions are still held by male figures. In these environments, it matters little that the woman also has a role of responsibility, because despite this, for some men they will always remain someone to whom they can explain how things should be done. According to a study by the University of Salford, in which 463 interventions at conferences and meetings were analysed, In research seminars, female speakers are interrupted more frequently than men.

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