Workers in Sweden can now report mansplaining using a dedicated hotline
In Sweden, many people who experience mansplaining in the workplace now have a devoted outlet for their frustrations.
On Monday, Swedish union Unionen launched a hotline for workers fed up with receiving unsolicited, condescending lectures from their male colleagues. The line, which is reportedly staffed by "a gender expert and a group of feminist politicians, comedians and scientists," will provide both active listening and advice -- as well as further information for people confused about what the term "mansplaining" means.
Unionen representative Peter Tai Christensen extolled the hotline's benefits in a statement on the union's website.
"Harassment, including mansplaining and suppression techniques, has no place in the equality work that the Union wants to achieve," he wrote. "Therefore, we need to problematize and outmaneuver this type of behavior."
But wait! Here's a real surprise: on the union's Facebook page, male contrarians quickly stepped in, arguing that the hotline is far too divisive to ever work.
"Equality can't be won using negative invective, but should be built using mutual respect and partnership. But maybe I'm the only one who thinks so," one man wrote.
Still, nearly 600,000 private sector employees are represented by Unionen, so it's highly likely that some of them have experienced mansplaining before. It's an even surer thing that they want those annoying lectures to stop.
May this hotline bring them a small vestige of peace.
[H/T: The Cut]
Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.
