From: This viral airport ‘mansplaining’ story shows what male allyship can look like.
- A feminist endures the unbearable experience of a stranger in an airport telling her his opinion on a topic she is highly credentialed in.
- A white knight gallops in and scolds the stranger for mansplaining.
- The stranger makes the mistake of apologizing in order to make the feminist happy.
- The white knight responds by going full melodrama: “No, man, you gotta live with the consequences of your mistake. Time’s up.”
The feminist closes with a call for men (who are evil and naturally want to harm women) to solve women’s problems:
Finally, she left men with a call to action. “Menfolk, will you please make this happen more often?” she wrote. “I could get by on half the energy it currently takes me to exist in the world if y’all would each take on one or two airport guys a month.”
Men may not realize how much energy dealing with sexism on a regular basis actually takes. If more did what Scarsella’s colleague did—speak up for a woman without speaking over her when a man exhibits sexist behavior—it would make life so much easier for half the population.
But know in advance chivalrous men that since she is an ugly feminist she carefully rejects ever feeling gratitude. She clarifies that her post is strictly focused on nagging men, and should not be mistaken as praise for men who do as she demands (emphasis mine):
The ease with which my new friend expressed his priorities signaled a long term, practiced commitment to not only holding them in his mind but to embodying them as well. I wish I encountered this more often. My new friend shouldn’t get accolades. I’m not writing this to praise him or put him in some kind of weird male savior position. His priorities should be normal and interrupting sexism should be mundane. But they’re not, so. Here we are.
