Mansplaining and its cousin, Toxic Masculinity, are real things and I don’t mean to make light of them. I’m not claiming the story I’m about to tell is in any way, shape or form the antithesis of Mansplaining. I just haven’t written in a while and wanted to share an interesting story.

mansplaining

/ˈmanˌsplāniNG/

Learn to pronounce

noun INFORMAL

the explanation of something by a man, typically to a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing.

“your response is classic mansplaining”

Definitions from Oxford Languages

A lot of people assume that if you are a guy, you know certain things. I’m not gonna debate whether you should know these things, some of them are very practical. But there are some things that you are expected to know automatically just by virtue of having a penis. Nevermind that your particular life circumstances never lent themselves to having the opportunity to learn them.

I bought a lawn edger at a yard sale years ago. I didn’t even use it for a couple of years after that, but finally started using it a couple of years ago. I have to say, edging makes your lawn pop.

Anyway, this year I noticed that it wasn’t doing as good of a job. I thought the blade needed to be sharpened. So I contacted my new favorite place to get sharp objects sharpened.

They told me that they don’t do that type of sharpening. Okay, no problem. But then the lady, who was responding via email, suggested that I just buy a new blade since they cost less than their sharpening services.

Boom! mic drop. Did I do that right? Anyway, no my fragile male ego wasn’t hurt by being schooled by a lady. However my why didn’t I think of that sensors did log an entry into my let’s remember this for next time algorithms. Like the song says, I’m still learning things I oughta know by now.

Stay Tuned.

****************

Like me, you probably dislike all of the ads on this page. They pop up unexpectedly, sometimes cover text, start playing videos and clutter the post itself. We bloggers have no control over any aspect of the ads (content, form, placement, etc). I am sorry that they have taken over our blogs on ChicagoNow and appreciate your continued support.

Follow Mysteries of Life on Twitter (@MysteriesOLife), Facebook or subscribe via email.