Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
While at the library today, I decided on a whim that I would go and see if this book was available. I was lucky, it was. I took it off the shelf, back to the table where my stuff was waiting for me, and I dove into this.
I knew what to expect from this, but at the same time I didn't know exactly what to expect. Was it going to be something was feminist and empowering? Would it be somewhat demeaning to anyone who wasn't a feminist? I wasn't sure. What I did know was that no matter what, it would be powerful and impactful, and I was completely right about that.
The author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is from Nigeria, and the way people treat men and women there is significantly different than in the United States where I am from. In Nigeria a woman is not respected unless she is married. A woman cannot go into a hotel without a man because they are afraid she is a sex worker. A woman cannot go into appraised nightclubs without a man because for a woman to have worth she must be accompanied by a man. She explains in this book, which started as a TED Talk back in 2012, all of the people she knows that have told her "Maybe don't call yourself a feminist" like being a feminist is a bad thing. Specifically, that you hate men, that you are unhappy in your marriage, etc. All these things connected to a word. But I respect what she does after all these people criticize her about being a feminist. She says I am a happy feminist, who does not hate men, who wears shiny lipgloss not for men but for myself. I can't explain how much I respect that.
She gives personal life experiences about her being a feminist. That while in an argument, she was called a feminist by an old friend as an insult. There is nothing wrong with being a feminist. In her childhood class, she could not be the monitor because it was assumed that the monitor would be a boy, because girls wouldn't want to do that. She even mentions the experiences of people she knows, here in the United States (!), that are being put down or not treated the same as men simply because they are a woman. It seriously grinds my gears. Women and Men, have biological differences, but we have equal worth.
This touched a nerve, and I feel now that I will notice these tiny discriminations against women more often now that they have been pointed out to me. This was a powerful read and I would recommend it to everyone, not just women.