Iah Noceja
Professor Pitts
ENGL 102
11/5/15
Critique on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “We Should All Be Feminists” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author who has received numerous awards and distinctions. Her main argument is that everyone should be a feminist not because of our gender, but because it is what is right. Adichie has been featured in Beyonce’s song, “Flawless”, spreading awareness to the idea of feminism. “We Should All Be Feminists” is a book about her experiences in Nigeria, where men are more powerful than women. The intended audience of the passage is each and every person residing in heavily patriarchal societies. Hesr thesis is “we should all be feminists”. Adichie has been called a feminist when she was little. Throughout
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She has clearly defined the term feminist in several occasions, including men as a part of feminism. In the dictionary, a feminist is a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. Feminist, in her own words, is a man or a woman who says there’s a problem with gender and we must change it. Also, she has used and interpreted information fairly, using her experience to strengthen her argument. Finally, she has not argued logically While she has provided statistics that women are 52% of the world’s population, she used a logical fallacy called the hasty generalization. Her assumption is of the Nigerian society, which is inadequate. If she intended to persuade her audience, it would have been more suitable to provide a wide variety of …show more content…
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie delivers her argument well, especially when she used humor to lighten up the subject. She was not aggressive. Instead, she provided facts that may or may not have changed the audience’s views. In general, I agree with her views. Everyone should be a feminist, not because it is the trend these days, but because it is what is truly fair. The American culture is big on human rights and gender equality is a part of human rights. The only weakness in this passage was that her focus was more on the Nigerian culture, ignoring the diverse group of people who are reading her book. Despite that weakness, her focus on the Nigerian culture also has its strengths, providing a different perspective that may add to an audience’s opinion on the
The Scarlet Letter can easily be seen as an early feminist piece of work. Nathaniel Hawthorne created a story that exemplifies Hester as a strong female character living with her choices, whether they were good or bad, and also as the protagonist. He also presents the daughter of Hester, Pearl, as an intelligent female, especially for her age. He goes on to prove man as imperfect through both the characters of Dimmesdale and of Chillingworth. With the situation that all the characters face, Hawthorne establishes the female as the triumphant one, accomplishing something that, during Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time, authors did not attempt.
The thesis of “We Should All Be Feminists” is everyone should be feminists because men are always viewed as the ones who have to greater than women in almost everything and it must be fixed. A feminist does not have to be a woman, a man can be one too. More importantly, she is specifically trying to cause awareness of the gender inequality in Africa because that is where she is from and it is where she has seen the stereotype against women. If this was a written essay, the category it would fit into is a persuasive essay because Adichie uses logos, pathos, and ethos to persuade the audience.
Women and all of mankind need to live a life together, not of solitude, working towards the greater good for all. Sadly, this key concept is often discovered aftermath of mass destructions, devastations, ill treatment, in-equality, and so forth. Feminism and women’s movements were not created for women to be “bigger and better” than men, but for women to work their way up to what men have. Many misunderstood this then, and continue to do so
The word “feminist” has caused turmoil wherever it is uttered. It has gained a negative connotation, and is often mistaken with misandry. While these claims may be true for a minimal number of feminists, the truth is that in order to get an accurate representation on what feminists actually believe one would have to go to the source. The two main problems with that, are that first of all, it is “not rigidly structured or led by a single figure or group”, and most importantly there is not just one kind of feminism, there are hundreds in each aspect of our life (Tavaana, 2014). The most under represented group within feminism is the kind that is in the government. Not all have the same theories, and therefore, do not have the same beliefs. However what we do know is that, whatever theory they have, or agenda they follow, they are all fierce promoters of gender equality.
Chimamanda Ngozi describes a feminist as “A person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.”During her Ted Talk from April 12th, 2013, She talks about how since she knew she was female she would have to try and prove her worth in school. She states that “I was worried that if I looked too feminine I would not be taken seriously. I really wanted to wear my shiny lip gloss and my girly skirt, but I decided not to. I wore a very serious, very manly, and very ugly suit.The sad truth of the matter is that when it comes to appearance we start off with men as the standard, as the norm. Many of us think that the less feminine a woman appears, the more likely she is to be taken seriously.” Her words ring true especially
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “We Should all be Feminists.” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: We Should all be Feminists| TED Talk, Ted Talk, November 2012, https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists. Accessed 30 Sept. 2017.
“There are two kinds of spiritual law, two kinds of conscience, one in man and another, altogether different, in women. They do not understand each other; but in practical life the women is judged by man’s law, as though she were not a woman but a man.” Those words were said by the great Henrik Ibsen himself. Henrik Ibsen was born on March twentieth eighteen twenty eight in Skien, Norway. He grew up in poverty following the demise of his father’s business. He was exiled to Italy, and then moved on to Germany. Ibsen wrote A Doll’s House in 1879, while in Germany. He sought to question social practices in the real world, and women’s position in society. He was commonly known as “The Father of Modern Drama”. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was published in 1879 and first performed shortly after in the same year and month. The play turned out to be very controversial, which lead Ibsen to write an alternate ending. The play was later turned into a television show and multiple movie adaptations. (Galens 106,107 ) Ibsen creates many static and strong characters that help convey his message. Nora Helmer is the play’s protagonist and wife of Torvald Helmer. Torvald, Nora’s husband, is shown to be extremely controlling and dominating. He often treats Nora like a doll or child. There are many relevant themes in the play such as: appearance and reality, pride, honor, sexism, and the search for self-identity. Nora’s life as a married woman is overall symbolized by a doll. Henrik Ibsen’s characters Nora, Christine, and Torvald perfectly depict the marital and societal trends of the 19th century; while further explaining the choices some made leading to a more feminist and gender equal nation.
Feminism can simply be defined as a range of movements and ideologies in which share a common ground in terms of defining, establishing and achieving equal opportunities to that of males, in regards to economic, cultural and social rights. It is a critique of male supremacy with efforts in changing this to end the social oppression of women. (Hooks, 2000)
At the date in which this statement was composed last April, I probably would have agreed with its relevancy and reasoning. I no longer accept this line of thinking, however, due to my education and involvement in Anne's co-taught class I am taking this semester, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender. It is ironic that I began my study of gender four years ago as a freshman vehemently against feminism, and only now as a senior taking the only class required for every major or concentrator in that field have I come to appreciate the legacy and usefulness of feminism as a theory of practice and of education.
The Feminist Movement begin in the in 1848 spearheaded by the Seneca Fall Convention (Smith & Hamon, 2012). Feminism is the reaction to many year of oppression by a male dominated society. In the Feminist Movement women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Canton Stanton desired rights, opportunities, and the identity that women deserved (Smith & Hamon, 2012). Osmond and Thorne (1993) stated that Feminist respond by expressing their desire to “develop knowledge that will further social change, knowledge that will help confront and end subordination of women as it related to the pattern of subordination based on social class, race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation” (p. 592). The “first wave” of the Feminist Movement
Most men and women today believe that we do not need feminism, that the world is fine. Sorrowfully they are far from being accurate. We don’t need feminism because it is about genders, we need it because it is about our society’s humanity. Women all around the world are denied basic human rights simply by the fact they are women which is absurd. For instance,
“Emancipation of women had made them lose mystery” –Grace Kelly, this was a quote said from a woman’s mouth, this was not only Grace’s opinion but the percentage of women being against feminism is increasing. Stop Fem-Splaining: What ‘Women Against Feminism’ Gets Right is an article wrote by Cathy Young published on Www.time.com which is an website for the news and articles, the article was published on July 14,2014. The article is taking about the Women Against feminist meme that has been up in 2014 through social medias and TV shows, the issue had many perspectives from the different kind of sexes, some women believe in the equality between men and women, that
...action with others… especially men. This supplies final substantiation of the authors' argument, that women continue to be oppressed by their male-dominated societies. It is a bold undertaking for women to ally and promote a world movement to abandon sexist traditions. Although I have never lived in a third world or non-Westernized country, I have studied the conditions women suffer as "inferior" to men. In National Geographic and various courses I have taken, these terrible conditions are depicted in full color. Gender inequality is a terrible trait of our global society, and unfortunately, a trait that might not be ready to change. In America we see gender bias towards women in voters' unwillingness to elect more females into high office, and while this is not nearly as severe as the rest of the world, it indicates the lingering practice of gender inequality.
After the overwhelming success of the talk, such as having millions of views on YouTube and being featured in the song “Flawless” by Beyoncé, she decided to publish the speech into an expanded essay named “We Should All Be Feminists.” In this essay, Adichie talks about her life and encounters with sexism from a young age, especially her introduction to the word “feminist” occurring at fourteen. She is having a normal day, playing and arguing with her friend Okoloma, until he “harmlessly” quips, “You know, you’re a feminist’” (8), which in Nigeria, is not a compliment. She also spends a third of the essay addressing the fact that all negativity towards gender inequality has the same root: unwavering tradition.
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional or philosophical dissertation. It helps to explain the main nature of gender inequality. It further explains the social roles of women in the society such as education, communication, philosophy, sociology and so on (Chodrow, Nancy 1991).