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Book ClubsWe Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Feminist or Not?
So...this is a little project of mine that I've been wanting to do for a while. I call it Feminist or Not, in which every Sunday I post a book under the "Feminism" tag on GoodReads and ask Ovarit a simple question: Is this book Feminist or Not?
We start with a classic; We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Some rules before we begin:
Feminist or Not will only occur within o/Books, even if the book would be a better fit in o/FeministBooks. This is because a fair amount of the books we will cover do not belong in o/FeministBooks, and it is better to keep this discussion in one circle, rather than going back and forth.
Only books published from 2010 onward will be covered. This is because the TRA nonsense that mucks up the Feminism tag on GoodReads did not really emerge until the 2010's. I'm sure we can all agree that Virginia Woolf wouldn't give in to the TRAs, for example. ;P
While discussing the author outside of the context of the book is allowed (and in some cases required), I encourage discussion to be focused on the book itself. This is because some authors make repeat appearances, and I wouldn't want discussions to plateau just because all the talking points were established!
While I might reply to a comment, I will refrain from participating directly to the conversation. This is because I want to avoid any bias.
This section will be copy-and-pasted every Sunday.
So Ovarit, is We Should All Be Feminists Feminist or Not?
(Also to the mods, if this is the wrong flair, please let me know and I'll change it!)
I adore CNA, both for her writing/speeches and her intelligent feminist stance. This book, an expansion of her TEDtalk of the same title, is a very accessible and concise primer on inequality. That said, I do wish that she didn't conclude with declaring a man--her brother--to be the best feminist she knows.
I'll admit that I haven't read this book as of yet, but from the title alone, it's clearly not radical feminist. Only women can be feminists, so the idea that everyone can or should be a feminist doesn't mesh with radical feminism.
Good idea! It’ll be a challenge to get comments on the spot from people who have read the book, but I’m looking forward to it.
It’s been a few years since I read it. As I recall it is a very basic primer on feminism for someone who has never thought about it before. As I recall it was based on biology as the root of our oppression. So I would say yes, feminist.
It's feminist but what shocked me reading it was how basic and uncontroversial it is. You'd think by the howls of the MRAs who stood against it, it would be some sort of radical tract, rather than a (very well written) basic feminist manifesto.