Review: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 Synopsis:

Feminism is not just a women's thing. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie demonstrates this in this eloquent and insightful text, in which she provides a unique definition of what it means to be a feminist in the 21st century. With a clear and direct style, and without leaving humor aside, this charismatic author explores the role of women today and points out ideas to make this world a fairer place.

Review:

Hello dear readers. Now I find myself listening to "In Utero" by Nirvana, drinking strawberry yogurt and about to tell you about this reading that touches on such an important topic as feminism.

This is the second text I read from this Nigerian author, the previous one I also read from this same book, I'm talking about "Dear Ijeawele" which I loved and whose review is on the blog. While I liked this one too, it wasn't as much as the previous one.

"We Should All Be Feminists" is a lecture given by Chimamanda in 2012 in Africa. There she tells how hard it is to be a woman and how hard it is to be a feminist through personal experiences, because everyone chicane you, they advise her not to present herself as a "feminist" because that does not please. People she loves very much advise her to drop the feminism thing, and that's when it hurts the most, because your closest circle is supposed to support you (unless you did bad things, but that is not the case here).

The author tells how it was the first time someone called her a feminist, and it wasn't exactly a compliment, and how she ignored that term because she didn't know what it meant but it was the first thing she looked up in the dictionary when she got home.

"There are men who feel threatened by the idea of feminism.

I think it comes from the insecurity that comes from the way they are raised, from the fact that their self-esteem is diminished if they don't <<naturally>> have the control as men."

He talks about how in real life there are more men than women in power, and the more important the rank or the higher we look the less the numbers are. 

A thousand years ago that would make sense, because everything was governed by the law of the strongest, and men (with very few exceptions) are much stronger physically than women. But nowadays that law no longer applies, people are supposed to be more reasoning, and the fittest should rule regardless of their gender, because both men and women are equally intelligent and capable, however, sometimes habit is stronger.

She also tells of times when she was with a man on the street, everyone ignored her, one anecdote is when she pays a guy who was taking care of the car, and this guy thanked the man instead of her, because he thought the money was his, he never imagined that the money was hers, because women don't handle money. Although it is a small detail, she expresses how bad this kind of situations make her feel, because sometimes the little things are the ones that make you worse.

Maybe you have realized that there are more women who forgive infidelities, deceits or betrayals than men, no matter how much you tell me to accept it, I know more women who forgive and are faithful, than men who forgive or are faithful and you know why? because girls are raised to be submissive and good, we make them loving because they are girls, we make them value affection more than a boy. We make boys colder and rougher, they are boys and they must be strong, right? well, we are unintentionally creating idiots like that, women let themselves be trampled because they think "poor thing" more than they think of themselves. Women learn to let themselves take second or third place to their husband. 

And of course not only women suffer from machismo, men are also victims, because they have the pressure to bring money home instead of being the one who is able to do it, they should be strong and not cry because that is for girls. And the truth is that we are all human, we can all fail or not, we all have ways of being, but the culture imposes you how you should be depending on the genitals you wear.

I leave you an excerpt from the text:

"A young girl was recently gang raped at a university in Nigeria, and the reaction of many young Nigerians, both boys and girls, was something like. Okay, rape is not okay, but what was a girl doing alone in a room with four boys?

Let's forget, if we can, the horrible inhumanity of that reaction. Those Nigerians have been raised to think that women are inherently guilty. And they've been raised to expect so little from men that the idea that they might be savage beings with no self-control is already more or less acceptable."

Machismo is a problem all over the world, but you have to take into account the place where this author lives, she is Nigerian, and that gap is much more pronounced than in a country like Argentina (where I am from) for example, the author mentions all the time the importance of marriage in Nigeria, how a woman can raise her status and be more respected if she wears an engagement ring. A much greater importance than in Argentina.

This is a reading that I recommend, it is super easy to read and it is only a few pages but the message it conveys seems to me very important.