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A review by coddiwompler
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4.0
A good, brief primer, based on a TED talk by the author, a Nigerian novelist and Macarthur Fellow.
Very straightforward language, not academic in tone. The strongest part is toward the end, IMHO, where she says this is not about human rights, or about class, or about race: it really does need to be about gender. Are there things about which one could quibble? Well, sure: e.g., men DO have to worry about how we dress in a business meeting, as women do. But such quibbling only shows defensiveness and a desire to distract with details in order to not have to acknowledge the obvious big picture.
One of the book's main strengths is its brevity. She doesn't lose the reader in details, in roving obvious points over and over. Her tone is that of one reasonable person talking with another reasonable person who simply hasn't noticed a problem yet, but would not deny it once it was described.
I can see why Sweden distributed copies to every 16 year-old. Here in the 'States, that would be considered indoctrination, rather than an effort to identify and rectify a pervasive problem. We've become rather too defensive.
Very straightforward language, not academic in tone. The strongest part is toward the end, IMHO, where she says this is not about human rights, or about class, or about race: it really does need to be about gender. Are there things about which one could quibble? Well, sure: e.g., men DO have to worry about how we dress in a business meeting, as women do. But such quibbling only shows defensiveness and a desire to distract with details in order to not have to acknowledge the obvious big picture.
One of the book's main strengths is its brevity. She doesn't lose the reader in details, in roving obvious points over and over. Her tone is that of one reasonable person talking with another reasonable person who simply hasn't noticed a problem yet, but would not deny it once it was described.
I can see why Sweden distributed copies to every 16 year-old. Here in the 'States, that would be considered indoctrination, rather than an effort to identify and rectify a pervasive problem. We've become rather too defensive.