An Australian university is under fire after observant passers-by noticed something strange about one of its billboards.
The University of Adelaide has been ridiculed after an image emerged online showing a young man explaining something to five women who looked disinterested, irritated and bored.
It didn’t take long for others to point out that it appeared the student was “mansplaining” — a term that refers to a man explaining something to a woman in a condescending manner, assuming she has no knowledge of the subject.
“Apparently you can now get a master’s degree in Mansplaining,” the image read.
And thousands of people quickly jumped on board.
“The women all have PhDs in the field, he just read a Reddit thread,” one woman laughed.
While another laughed at how boring all the women in the photo looked.
However, the university distanced itself from the advert, saying it was actually from Renewal SA’s billboards outside the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.
The University of Adelaide is being ridiculed by thousands over a resurfaced 2018 image showing a young white man explaining something to five women who look disinterested, irritated and bored
“This image is not from a University of Adelaide advert. It is an advert from the South Australian Government Organisation, Renewal SA, from six years ago which unfortunately ran alongside one of our adverts for the university,” a spokesperson told FEMAIL.
‘A cropped image was then circulated online, which misrepresented both the adverts themselves and the values of the University of Adelaide.
‘The image in the advertisement was not approved or supplied by the University of Adelaide, nor are the people in the image our staff or students.’
The resurfaced post spread quickly, attracting the attention of more than 247,000 people.
Both men and women found the commercial funny and got really into it, while others took the joke more seriously.
“All the women in this photo are saying something like, ‘I’m pretty sure I just said that,’” one wrote.
“It’s amazing how unimpressed they seem,” said another.
A man joked, “To clarify, mansplaining is when a man explains something.”
At the time, the university distanced itself from the advert, saying it actually belonged to Renewal SA’s billboards outside the old Royal Adelaide Hospital
But the joke was not well received by some who felt ‘offended’ by the comments.
“Just because a man is explaining something to a group of women doesn’t mean he should be condescending, overconfident, patronizing, or assume they might not know much about the subject. Yes, it’s a joke, but it’s not funny because it’s discriminatory against men,” one person wrote.
“The meme suggests that such an image must depict mansplaining, which is not true.”
Another added: “God forbid people explain things.”
One woman wrote: ‘You may find it damaging to call this ‘mansplaining,’ but I find it damaging to still have ads where five women are inferior to one white man.’
Others jumped on the wire to defend the university.
“The Uni of Adelaide had the misfortune of having an advert next to it. The photo was purposely cropped to make it look like it was the Uni, but from another angle it was obvious it wasn’t. I’m all for calling out the old fashioned mansplaining of this advert, but please don’t smear the Uni in a bad way,” one woman wrote.
“Their marketing is also really targeted at women, which makes this fake news even more annoying for them. I was devour to see it online tonight. And no one who sees this post will know the truth,” she added.
