Elle Armageddon is here to answer when and when not to mansplain.
On Sept. 14, the 30-year-old California-native created a flowchart illustrating when it's appropriate to "explain the thing to the lady."
The flowchart, titled "Should You Explain The Thing To The Lady?" asks simple questions such as "Are you an expert or at least well-informed?" and the obvious "Did she ask?"
Armageddon told The Huffington Post that she was inspired to create the image after a man felt the need to explain the difference between ascending and descending street numbers to her.
Two days after her encounter with the man who attempted to explain street addresses to her, Armageddon drew her flowchart and tweeted the image. The tweet quickly took off receiving over 1,500 retweets and dozens of mentions.
While Armageddon didn't specifically call out men in her chart, she told The Daily Dot that she "noticed that a disproportionate number of unsolicited (and often inaccurate) explanations bestowed upon me do seem to come from men." No surprise there.
In an ironic twist of events, as soon as Armageddon tweeted the image men on Twitter started explaining (read: mansplaining) Armageddon's flowchart to her.
"I have no idea why men, specifically, feel 'targeted' or 'attacked' by it, and assertions that it is 'sexist' are fascinating (and laughable)," Armageddon told HuffPost. "...But it has certainly been my experience that when you say 'here's a tool to help you not be an asshole,' people who display the behavior illustrated often get very defensive."
Armageddon said that she feels men took her tweet personally because "misogyny is still extremely prevalent in our culture," adding, "Any time a woman, especially a woman who identifies as 'feminist,' speaks publicly or is granted a platform, men perceive it as an attack against them."
So, to sum it up:
Sounds like a good plan to us.
Also on HuffPost:
