So being a woman, I’m used to sometimes being ignored or mansplained to. Especially when it comes to things that people stereotypically think is the man’s domain. But there was one time when it happened to my hubs!
We were planning to redo the flooring on the first floor. It was originally a red wood laminate, and we wanted to replace it with a tile that mimiced marble. As always, we did our research and determined the specs (yes tile has specs!) we wanted. The right size – 18 in. square for us) – the right design/color, and the right coefficient of friction. Yes, that’s right. I said coefficient of friction. For tile, this is basically how slipperty the tile is (when wet and otherwise).
We went to a couple different places to check out tile – local flooring stores, as well as chains like Home Depot and Floor & Decor. It was at Floor & Decor that we found what we thought we wanted – the right size and design. Now we just needed to find out the coefficient of friction, which wasn’t listed on the paper. We knew people working there could look it up, since another worker did that for us on another tile. So, a sales guy comes up to us to ask if we needed help. My husband explained, yes, we could. We want to know the coefficient of friction for this tile. Sales guy points to the paper and go “what you want is this. We just call it something different” Note, he pointed to a different spec that had nothing to do with how slippery the tile could get. My husband explains, no, what you’re showing me is …. I’m looking for how slippery the tile can get. You guys have a system where you can look up more specs – can you do that?” Sales guy goes “yes, I understand, but this is what you want.”
At this point, I could see that the guy was useless, so I started walking away to look at other tiles and left my husband to fend for himself. A few minutes later, my hubs comes up to me and goes “That was so frustrating! He kept trying to tell me I was wrong and explaining a different spec, even though I told him that wasn’t what I wanted, and I already understood all that!” Me: “Welcome to being a woman. You just got mansplained!”
Folks – you should’ve seen the look on his face! I still smile when I think back on it. At least he gets it now – “That’s what you go through sometimes!?!? That would drive me nuts.” Yup.
Miuzing 