“Scene: Pool, balding man, maybe 65 or 70 years old, with blue, bloodshot eyes, drinking from a bottle of Ensure, wearing designer swim trunks, which are half hidden under a huge, extremely brown, beer belly. Him: What’s that you’re reading, young lady?”
That’s the opening of a thoroughly depressing and all too relatable Facebook post from Lara B. Sharp, a New York Based writer who’s account of the poolside conversation that followed has gone viral.
Sharp, who was minding her own business and reading the book Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit — a series of essays about mansplaining, sexism, and patriarchy — goes on to describe the ironically mansplain-y interaction.
TL;DR: The guy thinks the book is about mentoring women, and offers Sharp (a successful middle-aged woman whom he insists on calling “young lady”) his services. He doesn’t let her talk and objectifies her repeatedly — at one point suggesting she make a photo of her in a bikini the cover of her book.
Sharps post went viral over the weekend with thousands of women commenting about similar experiences. “We all know John,” Sharp aptly remarked. The post was even shared by Rebecca Solnit herself.
It’s cringey interactions like this that show the pervasiveness of sexism and how women have to deal with it every single day.
Ladies: speak out. And guys: Don’t be John.