it might just be preaching to the choir - her arguments may be safe and ‘obvious.’.Adichie speaking during her TED Talk that would become this short essay in 2012Ĭhimananda’s important essay has its faults, and those faults almost exclusively relate to: But now I’m a feminist, or try to be, for whatever that’s worth. I also grew up in Texas, where masculinity is, in particular, venerated as the ultimate tradition. gender), and, through that difficult period, having only women as friends (many of them gay). If I were to try rationalizing a story-book history, I might say it was a combination of my higher education (and the role-models that came with it), a period of confused identity (incl. In high school, I held the same gross views as many men’s rights activists, and even had a pick-up artist phase (to my great embarrassment). It’s impossible it’s infuriating it’s stupid.Ĭhimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay, ‘We Should All Be Feminists,’ is a wonderfully-written, level-headed introduction and summary of what - apparently not just American or Western - modern cultures interpret as The Trouble With Feminism. The underlying social issues are complex, and the complexity is so ingrained throughout every aspect of our culture that it feels impossible to tackle how can focusing on a single aspect - a single page, a single frame, a single pixel - reflect the greater picture? It only takes two seconds for me to start rambling an incoherent mess without a point, without an argument.

We should all be feminists ted talk