Matt Damon Honored in Mansplaining Video

Image via ATTN

Matt Damon has achieved many honors in his career. There’s the screenwriting Oscar, sure, but also three Academy Award nominations for his acting performances, as well as a wealth of nominations from other groups.

But now he’s achieved a particularly proud moment: getting called out in a video about mansplaining. The moment occurred on his HBO show, Project Greenlight, and received a fair amount of press at the time. Producer Effie Brown tried to suggest that hiring a diverse range of directors might be a good idea (Brown herself is black), only to have Damon cut her off and explain why that wasn’t needed. The moment was so awkward that Damon later apologized after the episode aired.

And that’s the end of it, right? Well, no. The exchange has now been included in a video created by media site ATTN: explaining what the phenomenon of mansplaining is. So, not only did Damon do it, but he’s now become the poster child for what it is.

So what have we learned here today? Below, a few suggestions for how not to get included in a video about mansplaining:

1. Is a woman speaking? Would you like to add something to what she’s saying? Great! But hold up: Is she still talking? Now is not the time to say anything. Wait until the woman has ceased speaking. You’ll know this moment has occurred when words stop coming out of her mouth and she looks at you expectantly, waiting for a response.

2. Is a woman speaking? Do you want to share your own knowledge about what she’s saying? Before you say anything, consider whether or not it’s possible the woman already knows a fair amount about the topic at hand. And not just because she’s a black woman speaking about diversity! Leave room for the slim possibility that women speaking about such stereotypically male topics as sports, science, politics, global affairs, or directing feature films may already know a lot about those topics. Presumably you, also, know things about topics people might not expect you to be informed about. We all contain multitudes!

3. Even if a woman has expressed that she does not know too much about a particular topic, ask yourself: Does she want to?

4. If you’re in a conversation with a woman, and you realize you are doing 90 percent of the talking, just stop talking. You’ll be OK.

There, that’s not so hard, is it?

Don’t mansplain.

Don’t whitesplain.

Don’t be Matt Damon. Unless you are currently Matt Damon, in which case, continue being Matt Damon, because aside from the occasional unfortunate moment, you seem like a pretty cool guy.