An Australian university has come under fire after eagle-eyed passers-by noticed something off about one of its billboards.
The University of Adelaide has been ridiculed after an image resurfaced online that depicts a young man explaining something to five women who looked unimpressed, annoyed and bored.
It didn’t take long for others to point out how it looks like the student is ‘mansplaining’ – a term which refers to a man explaining something to a woman in a condescending way that assumes she has no knowledge on the topic.
‘Apparently, you can now do a Masters in Mansplaining,’ a caption posted alongside the image read.
And thousands of people were quick to get on board.
‘The women all have a PHD in the subject, he just read a Reddit thread,’ one woman laughed.
Another commenter laughed at how bored all of the women in the picture appeared.
However, the university distanced itself from the ad, saying it is actually a separate advertisement placed next to theirs outside the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.
The University of Adelaide is being ridiculed over a resurfaced image from 2018 that depicts a young white man explaining something to five women who looked unimpressed, annoyed and bored
‘This image is not from a University of Adelaide advertisement. It is an ad by the South Australian Government organisation, Renewal SA, from six years ago that was unfortunately placed next to one of our ads about the university,’ a spokesperson told FEMAIL.
‘At that time, a cropped image was circulated online, which misrepresents both the actual ads themselves, as well as the University of Adelaide’s values.
‘The image in the ad was not approved or supplied by the University of Adelaide, nor are any of the people in the image our staff or students.’
The resurfaced post quickly spread and caught the attention of more than 247,000 people.
Both men and women alike poked fun at the ad and honed in on the joke while others took it more seriously.
‘All the women in this photo are like “I’m pretty sure I literally just said that”,’ one wrote.
‘It’s amazing how unimpressed they all look,’ another said.
One man joked: ‘Just so we are clear: mansplaining is when a man explains something.’
At the time the university distanced itself from the ad, saying that it actually belongs to Renewal SA hoardings outside the old Royal Adelaide Hospital
But the joke didn’t sit well with some who were ‘offended’ by the comments.
‘Just because a guy explains something to a bunch of women doesn’t mean he must be condescending, overconfident or patronising, or assuming they might not be knowledgeable of the subject. Yes, it’s a joke but it’s not funny because it discriminates against men,’ one wrote.
‘The meme implies that such an image must depict mansplaining, which is not true.’
Another added: ‘God forbid men explain things.’
One woman wrote: ‘Maybe you think it’s harmful to label this as ‘mansplaining’ but I think it’s harmful to still have ads that show five women looking inferior to a white man.’
Others jumped on the thread to defend the university.
‘The Uni of Adelaide had the misfortune of having an ad next to them. The photo was deliberately cropped to look like was the Uni but from another angle it was clear it wasn’t. I am all for calling out the antiquated mansplaining of this ad but please don’t tarnish the Uni incorrectly,’ one woman wrote.
‘Their marketing is really female focused too, which makes this fake news even more upsetting for them. I was devo to see it online tonight. And no one who’ll see this post will know the truth.’