Feminism Opinion

UN Urges Men to Assume Women Are Smarter and Look for Consent Before Offering Information

The United Nations is urging men to avoid "mansplaining" to women by assuming females are smarter and waiting for consent before providing a woman with information.
Evelyn Rae
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The United Nations is urging men to avoid “mansplaining” to women by assuming females are smarter and waiting for consent before providing a woman with information.

The official UN Women’s Twitter account posted on Sunday three questions men should ask themselves before speaking in the presence of a woman.

The tweet read: “You can avoid being a mansplainer by asking yourself these questions: Did she indicate any desire to hear this information? Is it possible that she knows more about this topic than I do? Did I read the room before starting to speak?”

Along with the questions, the organisation shared the following definition of ‘mansplaining’:

“1. The practice of a man explaining something to a woman in a way that shows he thinks he knows and understands more than she does.

“2. A patriarchal act that trains women in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.”

So first, a man must now act as though every woman potentially has more knowledge and understanding of every subject than he does. That’s the basic presupposition they’re asking males to adopt. Play dumb and never assume a woman’s ignorance on any subject, to say nothing of your own expertise.

Second, we’re told when a man explains something to a woman he’s engaging in a “patriarchal act” that causes women to doubt themselves and men to feel “unsupported overconfidence.” Now, isn’t that a little ironic considering men were just told to assume competence based on nothing other than an individual’s gender?

What’s more, the UN takes it a step further, insinuating that a male must essentially have a woman’s consent before providing her with any information. Before daring to communicate with a female, men are told to ask themselves if the woman has indicated any desire to hear the information.

But judging by the post’s reactions alone, it would seem the UN failed their own test. Did we indicate any desire to hear this information from UN Women? No. Is it possible we know more about this topic than UN Women? Heck yes! Did they read the room before starting to tweet? Evidently not.

But perhaps the most painful point is that we’re funding this lunacy. In 2019, UN Women received a total of USD 510.56 million. Member states provided 76 per cent of the total voluntary contributions.

The top-10 government partners include Australia, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Finland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Australia was the ninth-largest other resources and regular resources contributor with USD 8.8 million and USD 5.5 million respectively.

Canada was the seventh-largest resources contributor donating USD 9.6 million and the tenth-largest total government contributor with USD 14.4 million.

The United Kingdom was the largest regular resources contributor with USD 16.22 million and fourth-largest contributor to UN Women with USD 26.74 million.

The European Union was the largest contributor to UN Women’s other resources with USD 84.4 million.

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