Real RAD Reads

Hi and Hello.

Today, I want to talk about We Should All be Feminists by Chimamada Ngozi Adichie.

When I started preparing for this post and for this blog all together, my plan was to revisit the books I’ve already read. And because this book – which isn’t’ really a ‘book’ (I’ll talk about that in a moment) – I thought I would tackle more than one. I have another book that is also a short read about feminism that I was going to talk about here – but I’ll save that for another post.

And here’s why. I decided to re-read this in preparation. It’s literally less than an hour to read, so I sat down with my Kindle and a notebook and noticed something that I didn’t pick up on a year ago when I read it the first time. What went from a quick read turned into a week long rabbit hole that sucked up most of my free time!

So let’s get into it….

We Should All Be Feminists is based on a Ted Talk that the author gave in 2012. It was wildly popular and put into book form and distributed to every 16 year old in Sweden, became a part of a Beyonce song and put on T-shirts by Dior. While I had not read it when it came out or was sampled by Beyonce, I knew about it. I was going through a separate journey, so I didn’t read it until last year and then again a few weeks ago.

My read last year was a solid 5 stars. This time, it’s a 3 and a half. So what changed? Everything I agreed with then, I still agree with now. Chimamanda talks about when she first heard the word feminist, she was 14 and her good friend called her a feminist, but not as a complement. She quickly went to look up the word, which is part of the Beyonce sampling.

“Feminist. A person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes.”

She goes on to want to redefine the word, calling herself a happy feminist and then a happy African feminist and so on.

Anyone who identifies as a feminist, especially those who present feminine, understand how it’s used as a pejorative term. Implying that you’re angry, hate men, don’t wear make up and don’t have a sense of humor etc etc.

There is value in the read. She shares personal stories that are very relatable. I can definitely see why it became as popular as it did.

The issue that I took with my second read is the language is quite binary – meaning that it doesn’t seem to include those whose gender identity is fluid, non-binary or transgender. But, language changes and this was written over 10 years ago – and that doesn’t seem like a long time – but it’s also forever ago especially in the way our language has changed in the same period of time.

So, I took to the internet as one does – wanting to understand if her language has been updated because we should all learn and grow as things change. I wanted to showcase that even a world renown feminist writer is learning and growing just like what we are doing here.

But that wasn’t what I found. In 2020, when another world famous author used their ‘feminism’ to exclude trans-women, Ms. Adichie came to her defense. In an interview, later that year, she was asked if trans-women are women. Ms. Adichie doubled down and responded with ‘Trans-women are trans-women’.

I spent a good week reading several articles about both of these authors as well as their posts surrounding the controversy. And while I am no expert, I think that excluding anyone from a movement whose goal is equity does a disservice to all of us.

Excluding trans-women from the umbrella of ‘womanhood’ hurts all women. It’s worth noting that I see the nuance that the author is relaying. If a trans-woman transitions at say 30 – her experience for the first third of their life is likely to be very different from those who are cis-gender. A similar argument could be made for a woman who grew up in different cultures, classes or religions.

One of the over-arcing beliefs that I have and will probably talk about a lot here is that I don’t believe in building a taller wall – but rather a longer table. I am a better person from the associations I have with those who are different from me.

Simply put – trans-women are women. You can always sit at my table. On Wednesdays we wear black.

All of that being said, I absolutely recommend the book. I think there is value in the read – but also – know the language being used is seen as exclusionary. So after you read it and return it to your library, let’s look for books that are written by trans folks that provide a seat at the table for everyone.

It’s an interesting lesson I’ve pulled from this read. Can we read something from someone who is being exclusionary? There’s a lot of nuance to this sort of question. We can certainly read and hold onto the good and let go of the noise. In the same breath, I can understand why someone would want to skip this one and pick up another book. Always do what’s best for you because there are so many voices and perspectives to seek out.

That said, I’ve added a few books to my TBR list inspired by the things I read preparing for this post:

• Before We Were Trans by Kit Heyam and
• Nevada by Imogen Binnie

I would like to share one of the quotes from the book that I noted during my read and seemed fitting after my rabbit hole journey.

“Gender, as it functions today is a grave injustice. I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change. In addition to anger, I am also hopeful because I believe deeply in the ability of human beings to remake themselves for the better.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Hope you’ll join me next week for another post. I’m re-reading a few things and reading new stuff so lots to come.

Would love to hear your thoughts below about this book or if you have additional recommendations. Are you planning to read this?

RAD Rating:

Let’s find our next favorite read together!

Byeeee!