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Added Author

Emily Beth Santor

Abstract

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, ‘mansplaining’ refers to a moment when a man takes it upon himself to educate others with a "delightful mixture of privilege and ignorance that leads to condescending, inaccurate explanations, delivered with the rock-solid conviction of rightness and that slimy certainty that of course he is right, because he is the man in [the] conversation." Since its introduction to the English language in the early 21st century, mansplaining has generally been used in reference to women’s rights and feminism’s struggle with cultural misogyny. However, the term serves as an excellent metaphor to describe the situation that occurred in the focus of this essay – a radio symposium about science and religion. The men who spoke in the symposium were regarded as experts in their fields mostly due to their privilege, class, race, and gender – none of which they earned and none of which qualified them to talk about the subject. Rather than men explaining women – as is the case with mansplaining – this symposium shows white Christians explaining non-white non-Christians. This ‘white-splaining’ or ‘Christian-splaining’ resulted in a prejudiced, ignorant worldview which was spread throughout the Western world. This symposium is one of many similar bricks that built the foundation of racist and oversimplified conceptions of world religion in the generalized Western consciousness today.

Subject

Religions; Religions -- Philosophy; Religions -- History

Journal

Relics, Remnants, and Religion: an Undergraduate Journal in Religious Studies

Publication Date

1-31-2018

Language

English

Publication Place

Tacoma, Washington

Publisher

The University of Puget Sound

Type

article

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