Sweden Launched A Hotline For Women To Report 'Mansplaining', Men Complain It's Unfair

In Sweden victims of mansplaining—when men feel the need to explain, usually in a condescending manner, various subjects to women who they think don't understand—can now report any such acts by a male work colleague to new a dedicated mansplaining hotline.

The dedicated hotline was launched by Sweden's largest union (aptly called 'Unionen'), with 600,000+ members, last week and was open for seven days daily from 10AM to 4PM. They set it up after saying they had received lots of complaints from their female members about mansplaining.

"Tired of male domination techniques on the job? Call Mansplaining-emergency room at 08-504 15 500, the Union helps you to get the forces you need for equality in working life." ran the ad for the hotline.

"I think often it's experienced as a sort of condescending exercise whereby the woman feels that the man feels a need to explain in perhaps a patronizing or condescending way, where the woman hasn't actually asked to be informed, and perhaps the woman might already be more knowledgeable or more well informed on the subject." Christina Knight, a Swedish gender expert who was involved in the hotline and helped operate the helpline phones told PRI.

The calls they received came from all over the country, and Knight says there was a 50-50 split of men and women calling up. People rang to praise the project and also to look for advice on how to deal with mansplainers.

Naturally people, men, took to the union's Facebook page to rage against the idea, saying it was more divisive to tackle it this way. But, despite these butthurt and cry babies' complaints the hotline looked like it was something of a success, with many people ringing it to ask for advice. Knight says that it wasn't intended to stoke anger or be an attack on men, but was done to generally improve the workplace and work towards gender equality.

So what do you do if you find yourself on the receiving end of some mansplaining in the office or work environment?

Here's what Knight suggests, "I think it's important to talk to the person who's exposing you to this and say 'You know something, I'm experiencing now that you're talking down to me or telling me something that I actually really know quite a lot about and I'd appreciate next time if you perhaps would start our conversation by asking me whether I'd like to know more, if I need to know more, or if I already know what I need to know.'"

So, politely tell them to f*ck right off, basically.

See below for Jimmy Kimmel mansplaining to Hilary Clinton about where she went wrong in her election campaign speeches.