The societal phenomenon Rebecca Soling is describing in her essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” is that men tend to silence women by not giving them the credit that they deserve. This behavior is damaging for women because we have had to work our way up to be respected by men and by silencing women we are taking a step back. As men tend to explain things to women, “the slippery slope of silencings” relates to issues like harassment and abuse. This is due to women not being able to talk about their experiences. It is related to abuse as the men seem to invalidate what women are saying and therefore aren’t allowed to speak on their experiences and feel less confident in themselves.