We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Published: July 29th 2014 by Vintage

Genre: Non-fiction, feminism, essay

Pages: 52

Feminism is one of those things that people are getting sick of hearing about because it’s been talked to death. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldt stop talking about it, or stop explaining it. My takeaway from this is that feminism, on many levels, is something very personal. Every woman has a different story and a different reason behind their feminism. And what it looks like to me, may not be what it looks like to you, but it never makes it any less important.

Man or woman, you can read this book and you might learn something. If you’re very familiar with the topic, well, you’ll have great stories and reminders here.You might find similarities to your own feminism or you’ll get to see a different point of view on the same side as yours. Because even though our feminism looks different, we’re all on the same side. And WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS!

“We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you would threaten the man. Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.”