In her column, Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, elaborates on the term mansplaining and the consequences of sexist language for gender equality.
Gülseren Onanç
I know the weight of serving as one of the few women on the Central Executive Board of a political party. Even the presence in the meeting room is different for men who think they know politics and “keep the pulse” of the society best can’t even go beyond the words of their president. In the power struggles among themselves, where there are even symbolic issues like who will sit closer to the president, what they expect from women is not to keep quiet. If women are talking, men are expected to confirm what they say. Women are not thought of as having a unique word on a subject other than women’s issues, such as the Kurdish issue, foreign policy, or the economy.
When introducing me to a former ambassador, the Vice President of Foreign Relations, with whom we once hosted an international group, said: “She is also the vice-president; whenever she speaks at meetings, we all listen in amazement.” At the end of the meeting, one group member came up to me and asked: “I was really curious about what you said at the meetings.”
I started with this introduction due to the feelings evoked by actress Nihal Yalçın during her speech at the Antalya Film Festival Award ceremony last week, when Tamer Karadağlı looked at his watch, interrupted, implying that she spoke for a long time, holding the award in his hand and describing how what she should due in her speech. The equivalent of this widespread male behaviour has been named mansplaining. Mansplaining is a sexist form of oppression that cuts women’s voices and devalues their thoughts and words. Academic Coşku Çelik’s article explains the emergence of this concept. Its social consequences give a roadmap to combating one of the dozens of male behaviours we encounter in our lives.
The Oxford dictionary defines the concept as “to explain (something) needlessly, overbearingly, or condescendingly, esp. (typically when addressing a woman) in a manner thought to reveal a patronizing or chauvinistic attitude.” A systematic and institutionalized form of oppression that silences or devalues women’s words and men’s tendency to make arrogant explanations to women are its main characteristics. This is the manifestation of male domination where women are systematically silenced because men’s thoughts and words are more valuable, which is socially taught to women and men from childhood. Thus, in a broad sense, mansplaining as a form of social oppression ‘pushes women into silence by pointing out that this world is not theirs – as the impact of m harassment they face in public spaces.
Mansplaining, which we will also call the practice of silencing women, continues to exist not only in the world of politics and art but also in all areas of society. For example, Professor Fatmagül Berktay said that as a female academic, she had to work harder to prove that she knew more and that her interest in gender studies was sometimes seen as a “hobby”. This situation is experienced in even more different and harsh ways by young female academics.
The situation is no different in the media. In TV talk shows where almost all participants are men, it is perceived as a typical situation for men to shout and talk arrogantly to the other female participants or women managers.
A few months ago, I was so angry at the fact that a male executive did not like the questions asked by a woman and interrupted her in the program. The programme was co-directed by an experienced bald journalist and an experienced female programmer on Habertürk TV. I found the phone number of the female programmer the next day and phoned her. I told her that I did not accept what was done to her, and I was with her to fight this situation. Although what I said pleased her, I understood that she was not bothered by the behaviour of the male programmer due to his age and experience. I still asked her to forward my message to the male journalist.
I also want to reflect on Coşku Çelik’s article in which de states that, “In the traditional Turkish family, the experience of the boy who is flattered and who is made to feel entitled to many things is different than the girl, who is taught the responsibility of managing men from the first years of her life. This shapes the difference in their education and at work. A male employee who is more confident about the value of his word will see the right to interrupt the female employee who is more nervous about it.”
Researchers have been looking for an answer to whether the male and female brains work differently for years to understand the reason for different behaviour patterns or whether the differences are due to cultural reasons.
Differences in the behaviour of men and women are not due to an innate brain difference. The brain is shaped by the gender roles that children learn as they grow up.
British neurologist Gina Rippon says that the biological difference between men and women is a “myth” in her book “The Gendered Brain”, published in 2019. She argues that differences in brain and behaviour stem from cultural forces. She reveals with evidence that the sexist language that is put forth explicitly or indirectly humiliates women.
Men and women are born biologically equal, yet the patriarchal system leads to the devaluation of women and leaves women behind.
For example, the number of women who won the prestigious Nobel prizes distributed since 1901 is 59, 6 per cent in total. Goran Hansson, president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize, has announced that they will not impose quotas based on gender and ethnicity. “Sadly, so few women win awards, and it reflects inequality in society,” she says.
Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, who also won the Hrant Dink Award, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with her Russian colleague Dimitri Muratov. Ressa became the 18th woman to receive this award in the 126-year history of Nobel. Women who raise their voices like Maria Ressa inspire us.
We established the SES Equality and Solidarity Association against this system that tries to silence women. We are working to raise women’s voices with the SES Equality, Justice, Women Platform.
Together we will raise our voice and words.