- ”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.Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general—but 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 pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what boys think of them. But the reverse is not the case. We don’t teach boys to care about being likable. We spend too much time telling girls that they cannot be angry or aggressive or tough, which is bad enough, but then we turn around and either praise or excuse men for the same reasons. All over the world, there are so many magazine articles and books telling women what to do, how to be and not to be, in order to attract or please men. There are far fewer guides for men about pleasing women.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “A woman at a certain age who is unmarried, our society teaches her to see it as a deep personal failure. And a man, after a certain age isn’t married, we just think he hasn’t come around to making his pick.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “My own definition is 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
- “We teach girls shame. “Close your legs. Cover yourself.” We make them feel as though being born female they’re already guilty of something. And so, girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire. They grow up to be women who silence themselves. They grow up to be women who cannot say what they truly think. And they grow up — and this is the worst thing we do to girls — they grow up to be women who have turned pretense into an art form.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- “A Nigerian acquaintance once asked me if I was worried that men would be intimidated by me. I was not worried at all—it had not even occurred to me to be worried, because a man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
WHAT FEMINISM TRULY MEANS TO CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
The excerpt of Chimamanda on feminism seems to be endless. In fact from all she said,Chimamnda never meant anything of insubordination of wives to their husbands,no. All along,the tone in her voice is a clarion call for girls and women to be treated as complete humans without denying them of any right because they are females. Moreover,Chimamanda in one of the workshop she had in Lagos one time told her childhood story on how her right of becoming her class monitor when she came first position in her class was denied her because she was a girl,and was given to another who came 2nd in the class,because he was a boy. It was then and from other indications where she was denied her right that the idea to write,speak and ginger her fellow female group of specie to become feminist.
To those who misunderstood or who has misinterpreted feminism to mean women or wives to be insubmissive to their husbands,Chimamanda who advocates feminism is happily married to a well disciplined man,and she is also quite submissive to him. Feminism does not mean gender equality in a way,but means giving due treatment and respect to any gender,man or woman,who truly deserves it!!!
