Baig 1

Muhammad Salman Baig

Zainab Sattar

2023-11-0290

SS-100 Writing and Communication S-10

16 March 2020

Critique on “We Should all be Feminists”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer, editor, novelist, long-time storyteller,

and women rights activist. Her work is primarily on the Biafran war and feminism. In 2006,

Adichie’s novel Half of the Yellow Sun won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction. Adichie

was awarded a MacArthur Genius grant and a Fellowship by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced

Study by Harvard University. (Britannica, 2019) In the article, “We should all be Feminist”

Adichie, who was also a participant at numerous TED Talks used literary techniques, the concept

of equality, power, writing, and verbal communication to address such problems that are

constrained by prejudices and strategies to get rid of social norms that do not help society (2)(7).

A cursory glance over the annals of human history would reveal that males have

dominated most of the societies; this realization has been implicitly acknowledged over

centuries. It is comparatively recent that it is translated into movements to try to end this

domination of approximately one half of the population of the Earth over the other. Gender

inequality is the debate of the century; raising children based on their gender is an evil that

cannot be contained; the Gender pay gap, toxic masculinity, and socio-cultural beliefs have been

the most critical issues for decades. Adichie, directly affected by the factors set out above, try to

make the audience realize that if we do not tackle the root ramifications of these problems. She
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invites her readers and the world to take proactive measures. Although Adichie's use of

anecdotal-based support validates her arguments, the use of a divisive tone, pathos and gender

normative language compromises on its strength. Even as the text that focuses on personal

observations making it subjective in essence, it offers a two-sided solution to the challenges

generated by both men and women through gender norms, indicates how things may be

overcome through the constructive political shaping of emotions, and proclaims how the

community is inferior to society.

The text mainly focusses on the author’s personal experiences, and how she has grown

as a feminist. She went from not understanding the definition of the term “feminism” to coping

with all the derogatory stigma connected to it becoming a happy African feminist. The idea that

male leaders are superior came into her mind from a very young age when she was refused the

position of class monitor even after earning the highest scores; she states, "I've never forgotten

the incident (9)." She goes on to explain how the Nigerian society believes a woman money

comes from a guy, and a woman can't afford a hotel room, and she needs to be tested and

punished. Adichie mentions the family’s social framework, claiming that in our society "The

language of marriage is often a language of ownership, not a language of partnership”

(Adichie,13). This overt discussion of the oppression experienced by women as it comes to

marriage is often addressed in many cultural outlets such as films, an illustration of this might be

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's award-winning film, "A Girl in the River: The Cost of Forgiveness."

Obaid-Chinoy's documentary shows how the tradition impacts the concept of marriage, taking,

as an illustration, a young Pakistani girl, "eloped to marry a young man she loved" (Hassan). The

documentary shows the limitations of the options women have in marriage because of the

oppressive structure of culture. "If we do something over and over, it becomes part of our nature"
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(Adichie,9). It is quite realistic that once individuals continue to do something, it becomes an

essential part of their character. Behavior is considered natural, and it is hard to condemn

because such habits form the essence of the community. The writer undertook this vital job and

questioned the traditional forms and responsibilities related to gender.

Toxic masculinity has harmed not only women but also men. Similarly, she relays her

thoughts to the reader at specific incidents of bigotry, where she and her friends have been

subjected too. It not only humanizes the topic of feminism to one of the theoretical claims and

statistics to a more open one, but it also demonstrates how inoffensive actions (as viewed by

society) may cause extreme emotions contributing to a deterioration of the personal-worth of an

individual. It allows the reader to understand Adichie's stance by recognizing the need to remove

these harmless differences, which are, ipso facto, dangerous. Adichie interprets an analogy from

this perspective and invites people to analyze that putting boys in the cage of “masculinity” is

plain cruelty. The fundamental aspect of the principal claims of Adichie is a moral one. She

demonstrates how patriarchal behaviors undermine not only the female entity but also the male

identity. In the text: “Masculinity is a hard, small cage, and we put boys inside this cage”

(Adichie, 12). Instead of teaching boys not to harm women, they are trained to be strong enough

to control their emotions. Due to social pressure, men pretend to be hard and stronger by hiding

their natural feelings. In comparison, Adichie brings a personal dimension to her argument by

portraying herself as someone marginalized by social norms which mistakenly favor men. She

asserted her feelings of the eruption when she did not get "monitor ship" even though she got the

highest marks in the test (Adichie, 9). Also, Adichie describes her struggle for determining the

true meaning of feminism. She explains the fallacies about the word "feminism" she encountered

throughout her journey. It allows the reader to identify rumors about feminism in his/her
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surroundings. Ultimately, the reader tempted to agree that there is no ground in the fact that such

claims and hence more acceptability of Adichie's status. Traditional beliefs of allocating specific

roles based upon their gender, such as females for “cooking” and hard physical work for males,

should evolve to prioritizing based on one’s intelligence. As “Gender is a social construct that

differentiates power roles, responsibilities, and obligations of women from those of men in a

society” (Dalal, 2018). Men and women should be treated equally, and they should have a right

to express their natural feeling without any social pressure from society. 

Yet, there are some flaws in her article. Although Adichie illustrates how gender roles

restrict all sexes from participating in society but it somewhat limits the feminist dogma to the

life domain of Adichie’s herself. She does not use any historical research to endorse her claims

regarding gender stereotypes, or data from experiments surrounding the application she created

about gender-pay-gap that might have enabled her article a more factual basis in substance. Such

use of arguments would also have a significant impact on the reader, who might have considered

her arguments with considerable heft in such an event. She assimilates several instances that

demonstrate the workings of feminism in Nigeria yet fails to comprehend the complexity of the

evolving culture around the globe. In the text: "Not long ago I walked into the lobby of one of

the best Nigerian hotels……... Nigerian female walking into a hotel alone is a sex worker……

The assumption is that he is there for something legitimate" apparently reflects this problem.

Although such observations may pretend general views of women about prejudice, there are

possibilities that such incidents are particular to culture or class to which the author belongs.

Therefore, they are not entirely representative of women across the world. Referring to personal

examples, assuming that her audience is aware of Nigerian culture, to address a global issue is

subjective, and this limits the platform at which it is being addressed. She also stated that
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Nigerian culture might be different from the rest of the world while referencing her arguments

with her childhood experiences increases the possibility of inaccuracy and decreases the

credibility of her arguments. Furthermore, she could address the different nature of sexual

harassment in public or workplace. A reach on sexual harassment, which was conducted by

Baugh in 1997, stated that "There is no question that sexual harassment has become an important

issue for businesses, estimated percentage of women who have experienced harassment vary

from a low of 42% to a high of 90%” (Gayle, 2) From such statistics, the issue is not negligible.

Research of prevalence have since reported that sexual assault is typically aimed toward women

and committed by men. “Although harassment in other gender combinations does occur, most

incidents involve a man harassing a woman. This situation is generally in keeping with social

standards on sex roles, and so it seems to be natural” (Baugh, 899) Adiche's one comment on this

severe issue can set the direction of her text for her readers. She could have strengthened her

arguments by explaining the role of religion, culture and ethnicity in this issue and how it can be

addressed across the world. She should have reflected on specific aspects of gender inequality

that women experience in their everyday lives, more specifically their status as objects in

common and pure objects of sex. Mention of the definition of "marital abuse" should have been

significant in this regard.

Even though text lacks strong supportive evidence that restricted the text for the specific

area and the audience’s perspective, and the decision of not highlighting issues of workplace

sexual harassment, and not to use fact and figures to make her article persuaded for a large

community and relying largely on personal references, Adichie successfully manages to propose

her substantial argument. This is attributed to her masterful usage of personal anecdotes, her

inevitable persuasive claims, and appeal to the selfless and moral senses of the reader.
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Work Cited

Baugh, S. Gayle. “On the Persistence of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.” SpringerLink, Springer,

Dordrecht, 1 Jan. 1997, link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-5610-3_4.

Priya, Kumar Ravi, and Ajit Kumar Dalal, editors. “Qualitative Research on Illness, Wellbeing and Self-

Growth.” Routledge’s https://books.google.com.pk/books?

hl=en&lr=&id=y2jeCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT204&

dq=gender+is+a+social+construct&ots=kT8NOfzgLD&sig=31V4B3HsKZEJcZUygEQicBH

Qbfs#v=onepage&q=gender%20is%20a%20social%20construct&f=false. Published 18 april 2018,

accessed 12th March 2020.

Hassan, Yasmeen, and "A Girl in the River's Oscar Win Gives Pakistan Chance to End Honor Killings |

Yasmeen Hassan." The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Mar. 2016,

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/mar/04/a-girl-in-the-river-oscar-win-pakistan-

end-honour-killings.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “We Should All Be Feminists”. New York, NY, Vintage Books, 2014.

Luebbering, J.E. "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie." Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., 11 Sept. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie.