We Should All Be Feminists
Ratings448
Average rating4.4
I absolutely love Adichie, I absolutely love books on feminism and I loved this book too! Very concise and straight to the point.
Giving this a 4/5 instead of 5/5 cause I felt that it completely ignored the fact that gender and sex are different, and it was very focused hetero relationships. These are things that are top of mind for me (esp in 2021), though I understand it might not have been as common to talk about in 2014.
Bitesized and well-suited for a TEDx talk, but unsurprisingly only momentarily transgressive. An accessible and necessary read for misogynists and people that are completely clueless.
“Some people ask, ‘Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?' Because that would be dishonest...to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. [...] It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. That the problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human.” (p. 41)
This also strikes me as a phenomenal explanation of why “all lives matter” is not an acceptable modification of “Black lives matter”. The problem is the targeting of Black lives, and to try to broaden the scope of the issue (for certain people's comfort, as Adichie implies) results in erasure of the actual problem, sweeping it under the rug rather than highlighting the concern so that it must be directly seen and confronted.
As a whole, this essay is an excellent primer or refresher course on the basics of feminism: what it is, why it is needed, how people respond to the concept. It is largely basic information, but it is written clearly and engagingly, and even those of us well-familiar with the topic may benefit from this work as a quick refresher, or find new, compelling explanations or phrasings of concepts. Adichie also includes many examples and anecdotes from her own experiences in Nigeria, which may provide a novel and important intersectional perspective for many white/Western feminists.
I really believe writings on social justice are products of their era and are challenging to revisit with a critical eye years later. This book/essay could definitely be better and more intersectional. But it was also written almost a decade ago. It doesn't make the gender essentialism and dismissal of the trans experience ok, but I feel like this essay is a byproduct of the politics and public consciousness of the moment. If it changed minds at the time and drove people to think critically (and I believe it did) then it did it's job. I don't see a reason to revisit it in 2023 besides the fact that I needed a short book to tide me over between library loans lol. I think our public consciousness around gender justice is more advanced and nuanced today, and that's great!
I liked how most of the things said in the book was told through stories and examples. And though I ended up disagreeing with a lot of that she said, I like how she didn't talk in vague expression. She said what she wanted to say, straight and clear. This was a nice read, it made aware or some things that never even crossed my mind before. (Like how in most households women do the cooking, but when we look at the biggest chefs in the world almost all of them are men. They are undoubtedly talented cooks, but it can't be a coincidence that almost all of them are men.) I do wish she didn't just talk about Nigeriens so much, but now I know that Nigeria has a big problem with genders (I am yet to know much of that is actually true though as I don't know any from Nigeria). Overall, I had my agreements, and I had my disagreements too, but I don't think disagreeing with a book necessarily makes it bad (though I had to think about that a bit before I made that opinion). It gets a 3.5/5 rating from me, it was good read.
Maybe not the most in depth but the point brought across perfectly with examples and experiences.
Een duidelijk analyse, makkelijk verwoord, iedereen kan het begrijpen, van de onderdrukking van de vrouw en gender rollen in onze samenleving.
Erkenning van tegenargumenten én een sterke weerlegging ervan, ugh yes.
4,5 sterren; ze erkent alleen man en vrouw, en de relatie tussen man en vrouw individueel en collectief. Volgens mij is dit origineel uit 2012 of 2013 (ik kan fout zijn), toen het nog niet werd besproken dat sommige mensen zich heel anders definiëren dan alleen vrouw of man. Vandaag de dag vind ik dat wel een belangrijk onderdeel van de discussie.
A very short, fast read about gender and the need for us all to become feminists: A person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.
Quotes:
“the higher you go, the fewer women there are.”
“We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what boys think of them. But the reverse is not the case.”
“A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.”
“The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.”
“We use the word respect for something a woman shows a man but often not for something a man shows a woman. Both men and women will say: ‘I did it for peace in my marriage.' When men say it, it is usually about something they should not be doing anyway... When women say [it], it is usually because they have given up a job, a career goal, a dream.”
“Some men feel threated by the idea of feminism. This comes, I think, from the insecurity triggered by how boys are brought up, how their sense of self-worth is diminished if they are not ‘naturally' in charge as men”
“Men need to speak out in all of these ostensibly small situations.”
“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
Una carta muy breve y consisa que puede comunicar tanto a hombres como mujeres los principales prejuicios subyacentes en nuestra sociedad. Me gustó la breve forma en que la autora aborda su opinión sobre el feminismo, no obstante sentí en algunas partes del libro cierto radicalismo de este concepto.
”My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote an easy essay about how culture and education contribute to gender roles. Although I preferred the book ”A feminist manifesto in fifteen lessons”, this one contains powerful messages and I would especially recommend it to my male friends.
When discussing feminism with some of them, I often get the impression they feel threatened by some of my ideias and beliefs. Being a feminist does not mean I am against men, it just means that we are still not treated equally and that we must fix this.
This book easily shows that we do not feel this is all men's fault. Most of the time men aren't even aware of the problem and that's why I always need to give examples to prove gender discrimination exists.
Men need to be aware and think more about gender because we all have the power to change the future.
”The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are.”
Very short read. Hard to call it a book. Most of the concepts expressed should be very well known, but they are nicely exposed and organized. While I wholly agree with the author with almost everything, I cannot say that there is enough originality to justify more than 3 stars.
Enlightening read about feminism. Also, interesting to hear about Nigerian culture and feminism. Very concise and easy to read. Many quotes stood out and resonated with me, especially about gender expectations.
I absolutely love Adichie, I absolutely love books on feminism and I loved this book too! Very concise and straight to the point.
Giving this a 4/5 instead of 5/5 cause I felt that it completely ignored the fact that gender and sex are different, and it was very focused hetero relationships. These are things that are top of mind for me (esp in 2021), though I understand it might not have been as common to talk about in 2014.
Может, я просто не знаю, какими невежественными бывают люди, но мне это эссе не сказало ничего нового. Никаких откровений, никаких страстей - все обыденно и просто (и от этого, конечно, несколько беспокойно). При этом рука не поднимется поставить плохую оценку из-за важности поднимаемой темы. Поэтому ничего не поставлю, но про себя отмечу - что та же Кейтлин Моран мне ближе в плане обоснования феминизма.
Not ground-breaking, but a very enjoyable and thought-provoking read. The examples support the main idea well and offer a more unheard (African) perspective on sexism and feminism. Would recommend to people who are interested in feminism but don't have a lot of time on their hands.