Westsplaining
Westsplaining (a blend word of west and the informal form splaining of the gerund explaining) is a pejorative term that represents criticism of Western world sociopolitical views of Central and Eastern Europe and its historical and current relations with the Soviet Union and Russia.[1] The word became virally popular during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine[2] after Jan Smoleński and Jan Dutkiewicz defined the word to mean "[the] phenomenon of people from the Anglosphere loudly foisting their analytical schema and political prescriptions onto the [Central and Eastern European] region".[3][2]
Pre-2022 usage[edit]
In 2019, journalist Edward Lucas described the term westsplaining as referring to a common event in conferences, diplomatic meetings and online social networks, in which Westerners criticised Eastern Europeans distrust of "dialogue with Russia". Lucas saw westsplainers as including right-wing Westerners who "secretly" admired Russian military interventions; left-wing Westerners who saw NATO, the United States and defence spending as "the real enemy"; and a third group who were "just greedy". Lucas argued that westsplaining led Westerners to misjudge Russian threats and actions against Western and Eastern Europe and failed to learn from Easterners.[1]
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine[edit]
In their 4 March 2022 essay, Jan Smoleński and Jan Dutkiewicz argued in The New Republic that sociopolitical analysis of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine by the core Anglosphere ignored analysis by Eastern European scholars, who reacted by describing the attitude as westsplaining. Smoleński and Dutkiewicz accused Anglosphere scholars and political commentators from across the political spectrum, including John Mearsheimer,[4] Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute, Wolfgang Streeck, Jeffrey Sachs, Yannis Varoufakis, Tucker Carlson, Mariana Mazzucato, of focussing on the enlargement of NATO and Russia–United States relations as having primary importance, neglecting Ukraine's international legal right of self-determination. Smoleński and Dutkiewicz state that "[i]n the westsplaining framework, the concerns of Russia are recognized but those of Eastern Europe are not."[3] Legal scholar Patryk Labuda described westsplaining in this context as ignoring Russian imperialism as an explanation of the invasion, in favour of NATO expansion as the main causal factor. Labuda stated that there was "a real risk" of international lawyers westsplaining in the broader contexts of their legal analyses of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[2]
Left-wing Westerners were criticised by Eastern Europeans, including anarchist Zosia Brom and philosopher Tereza Handl, as westsplaining in that they ignored self-determination and the political agency of Eastern Europeans in the context of discussions related to the invasion, and they ignored Russian imperialism.[5][4]
Popularity of the term westsplaining continued in June 2022 in relation to "high-status" Western men on Twitter who disagreed with an analogy made between Russian racism against Ukrainians and racism against Black Americans.[6][4]
Westsplaining in relation to the invasion was also seen "imagining an apocalyptic encounter between the powers of 'freedom' and 'authoritarian darkness'" and ignoring questions of discrimination for "gender, race, sexuality, or queerness".[7]
Reactions[edit]
The departure of the Left Together Polish political party from the Progressive International coalition and from DiEM25 was attributed to westsplaining the invasion (a failure to unambiguously declare support for Ukrainian sovereignty) by Western members of the coalition.[5][4]
Yanis Varoufakis, a Greek economist and politician accused of westsplaining by Smoleński and Dutkiewicz,[3] interpreted westsplaining to mean the denial of Eastern Europeans' political agency. Varoufakis responded to the criticism by saying that he was aware of the Easterners' view that non-expansion by NATO would still have led to a Russian invasion of Ukraine, but disagreed with it. He argued that both the Easterners' view and the alternative hypothesis, that NATO non-expansion would have led to no war and "no dangerous tensions in Eastern Europe", were unprovable counterfactuals, and that describing him as a westsplainer was not justified as part of respectful dialogue among leftists.[8]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Lucas, Edward (2019-03-25). "Europe's 'frontline' states have a lot to teach the 'old West.' Perhaps we should listen". Center for European Policy Analysis. Archived from the original on 2022-06-17. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ a b c Labuda, Patryk I. (2022-04-12). "On Eastern Europe, 'Whataboutism' and 'West(s)plaining': Some Thoughts on International Lawyers' Responses to Ukraine". European Journal of International Law. Archived from the original on 2022-06-16. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ a b c Smoleński, Jan; Dutkiewicz, Jan (2022-03-04). "The American Pundits Who Can't Resist 'Westsplaining' Ukraine". The New Republic. Archived from the original on 2022-06-23. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ a b c d McCallum, Alasdair (2022-04-13). "What we lose by 'Westsplaining' the Russian invasion of Ukraine". Monash University. Archived from the original on 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ a b Mannheim, Linda (2022-04-04). "'F*ck Leftist Westsplaining!'". The Nation. Archived from the original on 2022-06-11. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ Hrytsenko, Hanna (2020-06-19). "Westsplaining Ukraine". Euromaidan Press. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ choi, shine; de Souza, Natália Maria Félix; Lind, Amy; Parashar, Swati; Prügl, Elisabeth; Zalewski, Marysia (2022-04-26). "Questioning war". International Feminist Journal of Politics. Taylor & Francis. 24 (2): 193–197. doi:10.1080/14616742.2022.2054156. Archived from the original on 2022-06-22. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ^ Varoufakis, Yanis (2022-03-23). "My reply to the Charge of Westsplaining Eastern Europeans". YanisVaroufakis.eu. Archived from the original on 2022-06-24. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
