Internet Ridicules Man Who Mansplained Physics To A Top Female Astronaut

'I forget how everyone gets offended by everything.'
Jessica Meir
Jessica Meir

Another day, another man thinking he can tell a professional, highly-qualified woman how to do her job.

But the ‘I know better than you’ brigade hitched up a notch when world-class astronaut Jessica Meir had the complexities of space explained to her by a man.

For background, Meir:

  • Is a Harvard assistant professor
  • Completed a PhD on the diving physiology of emperor penguins and northern elephant seals
  • Was selected by Nasa to become one of the eight members of Astronaut Group 21 - from a pool of 6,372 applicants

But despite all that, social media user Casey O’Quin took to Twitter to instruct her on a little basic physics.

The American-Swede astronaut had posted a video of her in a space simulator - equivalent to being 63,000 feet above Earth.

But this being the Internet, O’Quin took it upon himself to explain Meir’s point about water boiling back to her.

But no-one would let him get away with it, social media users stepping in to chastise O’Quin for forgetting that Meir was likely to know a fair bit more than him.

“This lesson went well, I think,” one joked. “But you should have told her to smile more - women love that.”

Some nine hours after the deluge of criticism, O’Quin might have realised his mistake, writing in a follow-up post: “Again, I forget how everyone gets offended by everything.”

He has since deleted his account.

And just to clarify the point about mansplaining here:

Congratulations, Internet!

Close