“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.’”
(17) Thus concludes the author, Chimamanda Adichie, her essay We Should All
be Feminists. Torn between two cultures—Nigeria and the US, the author
finds herself often being called “westernized” or “whitewashed” for being a
feminist, that is due to the false conviction that feminism is un-African. Therefore,
she includes in the book-sized essay some personal anecdotes and statements
(which will be addressed in the next couple of paragraphs) that are meant to reshape
the definition and the convictions of 21st-century feminism. And she
serves, hopefully, to feed people the fact that feminism is for everybody, men or
women, young or grownup, white or African…
Adichie, through the people she
meets and whom she writes about in the essay, and through her own experiences,
forms her own definition of feminism. Her definition is a result of countless
encounters with inequality. For instance, she narrates that once, she was at a
restaurant in Nigeria with a male friend of hers. The waiter at the restaurant
greeted the man and completely disregarded her presence. Adichie here does not
antagonize the waiter, instead, she blames society for constructing such
behavior in which a man is seen to be worth recognition in public, while a
woman is not. “The waiters are products of a society that has taught them that
men are more important than women…” (15) This one (out of many) social
stereotypes is, evidently, part of the ‘problem with gender’ that she states in
her conclusion.
Another issue that Adichie addresses
is the traditional outdated conviction that male is physically stronger than
female and hence deserves to be doing the more important and somewhat higher jobs.
She affirms that yes, that is what was true in the past because jobs then required physical effort. But today, she says, most job’s main attribute is
rather the intellectual, something which both men and women can equally obtain.
“…Human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the most
important attribute for survival […] Today, we live in a vastly different
world. The person more qualified to lead is not the physically stronger
person. It is more the intelligent.” (15) Looking back again at her conclusive
statement, it is inferred that Adichie believes that perhaps we will only
collectively do better once we break out from our outdated beliefs (man is
stronger—man deserves better jobs, and as such) that limit women’s abilities.
Adichie herself embodies an accurate
definition of a Feminist. Her fair, logical statements, and her inclusion of
men, rather that hating on them, teach the readers what it really means to be
a feminist. As subjective as her judgments may seem, it must be universally acknowledged
that indeed, like she says, for us to do better we shall demolish whatever
gender stereotypes there are, and reform the chances that women get. Only then
will we live in a balanced and equal world.
