The Womansplainer, the perfect service for the obnoxious misogynist in your life.

For any woman who’s ever had to spend time explaining why catcalling is not a compliment, say a hearty hello to The Womansplainer. The clever, tongue-in-cheek service bills itself as "consulting for men who have better things to do than educate themselves about feminism". Starting from the bargain price of $20USD, visitors can get answers to queries such as “Why is it ‘feminism’ and not ‘humanism/equalism’?”, “Do feminists hate sex/humour/fun?” and “Give me some examples of how women aren’t treated equally”.

The site is the brainchild of 26-year-old American artist and illustrator, Elizabeth Simins. She was inspired to start the project on a whim, with it only taking a couple of hours from her initial idea to the site being built. “It was a reaction to something that’s been happening for a long time of how when women talk about feminism, men will jump in and demand that we give them explanations to very easily Google-able questions,” explains Simins, speaking on Skype from Portland. All of the questions listed on the site are actual queries she herself or her Twitter followers have received.

While Simins believes some of the enquiries come from a place of genuine interest or unawareness, a lot of them fall into the category of mean-spirited time-wasting. “I definitely think that societally it is about wasting our time. It’s about them feeling like they’re entitled to our time,” says Simins. “The reason why I did The Womansplainer in the first place was because I had this thought process which was if I answered every question that I got, it would take the amount of time of a full-time job, but I wouldn’t be paid. Basically these men are asking women to take on an unpaid internship in order to do tasks for them that they could very easily do themselves if they actually cared about it. Very few people have paid for The Womansplainer services, but a lot of people have gotten the message. My time is not free and neither is other women’s time.”

It’s not Simins' first foray into awareness-raising art projects. She’s active in the video gaming community and created a popular t-shirt emblazoned with 'Gaming’s Feminist Illuminati', a spoof on the gamers who believe there’s a ‘secret feminist cabal’ conspiring to overtake the industry. Another project was 'Ain’t No Such Thing As Misogyny', a limited-edition zine filled with ink paintings of objectified close-ups of men in games, which was created in response to comments that misogyny didn’t exist in video games because there are a few male characters who could be perceived as sexy.


Simins finds humour to be a powerful weapon in the fight against sexism. “It’s a cliché, but it is a really helpful way of spreading awareness and also of dealing with the unfairness of it. All this sh*t that happens to women is so unfair, and I think a lot of the time there’s a feeling of futility - the system is so huge and what can we really do to fix it? So making something that’s lighthearted but also pokes at a serious issue is for me a comforting way of dealing with that.”

The reaction to The Womansplainer has been largely positive, though there have been a few visitors who have completely missed the point, furiously asking "Why would I pay you to do this thing I could do for free?". The project has received glowing write-ups in Jezebel, The Cut and Hello Giggles. There have been requests as to whether gift certificates will be implemented on the site (the perfect Christmas present for that misogynist in your life, perhaps?). Simins says she’s also received feedback from members of other minority demographics asking if they can make their own versions, such as a ‘Blacksplainer’ or ‘Lesbiansplainer’.

“I’ve been really happy about when people who are members of marginalised groups that I’m not a part of have said we need one of these for whatever their form of civil rights or activism is. I know that it isn’t just women who get these kinds of in-bad-faith questions, 'concern trolling', et cetera. I think it’s important that people don’t just expect others to take time out of their day to educate you.”