From Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk
Feminism has become this controversial, overtwrought word. Here to help us out is novelist Chimamanda Adichie, who gave an excellent TED talk worth a listen (embedded at the end of this article). But first, we break down the three ways to respond to anti-feminist (word or action) arguments.
1. Why the word feminist?
CA: “‘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.”
2. I don’t see much gender discrimination happening …
“Many men do not actively think about gender or notice gender … If you are a man and you walk into a restaurant and the waiter greets just you, does it occur to you to ask the waiter, ‘Why have you not greeted her?’ Men need to speak out in all of these ostensibly small situations.”
3. But this is our culture.
“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
Click here if you prefer to read the transcript of the talk.