SNL Hit the Mansplaining Nail on the Head With “A Sketch for the Women”
International Women’s Day might have come and gone last Wednesday—with a powerful A Day Without a Woman strike, no less—but it wasn’t over yet on Saturday Night Live. The female employees at SNL were able to participate in the women’s strike by taking the day off work, which was addressed on last night’s episode in a skit called “A Sketch for the Women,” in which cast members Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney acknowledged (read: mansplained) the issues women continue to struggle with.
The sketch started off on a serious note when last night’s host, Scarlett Johansson, and Aidy Bryant explained that they weren’t able to write any sketches while they were striking on Wednesday. Luckily, their male coworkers promised to write a sketch for them. “We haven’t read it yet, but they told us it features the entire female cast, and it includes an important conversation about women’s issues,” Johansson assured the audience before the actors jumped into the sketch.
The four of them sit down together for dinner, and the two male actors carry the entire conversation from the start by discussing a woman Mooney saw getting harassed on the street. “It just made me realize how hard it must be to be a woman. You know, we don’t have to go through that as men,” he said. They discuss the wage gap, sexual harassment, and the unrealistic way women are portrayed in the media. “That’s not fair!” Mooney adds. Finally the women get a chance to chime in. “Thank you for saying that,” Bryant and Johansson say in unison.
The men then launch into a conversation about the unfortunately low number of female senators and film directors, then try to explain micro-aggressions while talking over the personal struggles of the female cast members. As an added apology for all the issues women face every day, they bring out the night’s musical guest, Lorde, for a special performance—then cut her off so they can sing her hit song “Royals.”
If any of this seems familiar (), you should definitely watch the clip below:
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