Woman Tweets Joke About Mansplaining, Man Promptly Mansplains to Her

Impact

On Tuesday, Toronto-based writer Katie Cunningham tweeted a joke about her reaction when men try to explain things to her.

The post quickly went viral — but then, something interesting (and, frankly, kinda unsurprising) happened. According to Cunningham, approximately 100 men replied with their own unsolicited opinions about her tweet, with one man referring to her joke as an act of "deception" against men. 

So Cunningham posted a follow-up tweet: a screengrab of the man mansplaining her joke for her. 

The tweet spread across Facebook, Reddit and Tumblr, where it racked up thousands of notes. 

"It's been a little alarming to see people talking about me as if I can't see it," Cunningham told Mic via Twitter DM. "One guy linked the tweet to an MRA account, which was scary. Someone DM'd me this morning and just said the word 'cancer.'"

Still, Cunningham hopes that the tweet will serve as a teachable moment of sorts for some men.  

"There are some dudes who are never going to expect me to be intelligent," she said. "So if you sort of make a joke of it, if they catch on, they kind of learn something ... then realize that they were talking down to me in the first place."