mansplain

Every woman knows what I'm talking about. It__ the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men__ unsupported overconfidence.

The battle with Men Who Explain Things has trampled down many women _ of my generation, of the up-and-coming generation we need so badly, here and in Pakistan and Bolivia and Java, not to speak of the countless women who came before me and were not allowed into the laboratory, or the library, or the conversation, or the revolution, or even the category called human.

Why do some trees stay green while others change their color?___ertain trees need to show off, dear. I__ sure that my big brother could explain why it happens. Dahlaine loves to explain things, and he can be very tedious about it. I prefer simpler answers. The trees are sad because summer__ almost over.

If it__ not clear enough in the piece, I love it when people things to me they know and I__ interested in but don__ yet know. It__ when they explain things to me I know and they don__ that the conversation goes awry.