NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly acclaimed, provocative essay on feminism and sexual politics—from the award-winning author of Americanah In this personal,...
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly acclaimed, provocative essay on feminism and sexual politics—from the award-winning author of Americanah In this personal,...
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Due to publisher restrictions, your digital library cannot purchase additional copies of this title. We apologize if there is a long holds list. You may want to see if other editions of this title are available from your digital library instead.
Description-
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The highly acclaimed, provocative essay on feminism and sexual politics—from the award-winning author of Americanah In this personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from the much-admired TEDx talk of the same name—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century. Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
Excerpts-
From the cover
INTRODUCTION
This is a modified version of a talk I delivered in December 2012 at TEDxEuston, a yearly conference focused on Africa. Speakers from diverse fields deliver concise talks aimed at challenging and inspiring Africans and friends of Africa. I had spoken at a different TED conference a few years before, giving a talk titled ‘The Danger of the Single Story’ about how stereotypes limit and shape our thinking, especially about Africa. It seems to me that the word feminist, and the idea of feminism itself, is also limited by stereotypes. When my brother Chuks and best friend Ike, both co-organizers of the TEDxEuston conference, insisted that I speak, I could not say no. I decided to speak about feminism because it is something I feel strongly about. I suspected that it might not be a very popular subject, but I hoped to start a necessary conversation. And so that evening as I stood onstage, I felt as though I was in the presence of family – a kind and attentive audience, but one that might resist the subject of my talk. At the end, their standing ovation gave me hope.
...
WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS
Okoloma was one of my greatest childhood friends. He lived on my street and looked after me like a big brother: if I liked a boy, I would ask Okoloma’s opinion. Okoloma was funny and intelligent and wore cowboy boots that were pointy at the tips. In December 2005, in a plane crash in southern Nigeria, Okoloma died. It is still hard for me to put into words how I felt. Okoloma was a person I could argue with, laugh with and truly talk to. He was also the first person to call me a feminist.
I was about fourteen. We were in his house, arguing, both of us bristling with half- baked knowledge from the books we had read. I don’t remember what this particular argument was about. But I remember that as I argued and argued, Okoloma looked at me and said, ‘You know, you’re a feminist.’
It was not a compliment. I could tell from his tone – the same tone with which a person would say, ‘You’re a supporter of terrorism.’
I did not know exactly what this word feminist meant. And I did not want Okoloma to know that I didn’t know. So I brushed it aside and continued to argue. The first thing I planned to do when I got home was look up the word in the dictionary.
Now fast-forward to some years later. In 2003, I wrote a novel called Purple Hibiscus, about a man who, among other things, beats his wife, and whose story doesn’t end too well. While I was promoting the novel in Nigeria, a journalist, a nice, well-meaning man, told me he wanted to advise me. (Nigerians, as you might know, are very quick to give unsolicited advice.)
He told me that people were saying my novel was feminist, and his advice to me – he was shaking his head sadly as he spoke – was that I should never call myself a feminist, since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands.
So I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist.
About the Author-
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope: All-Story. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, a New York Times Notable Book, and a People and Black Issues Book Review Best Book of the Year; Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Year; and the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.
Reviews-
Starred review from February 27, 2017 Its tough to imagine anyone other than Adichie narrating the audio edition of her feminist manifesto, which originated as a TED Talk and was later adapted into a book. Many listeners will recognize the Nigerian writer’s voice and words from pop star Beyoncé’s song “Flawless,” which featured sound bites from Adichie’s original speech. Here, those sound bites are put into context and given weight as Adichie lays out her creed. Her voice is both gentle and confident as she takes listeners through the deeply conditioned sexism she has encountered, beginning with her encounters with the label “feminist” growing up and drawing on her own experiences as well as those of other women in her life. She coolly relays the story of a woman in Nigeria who decided to sell her house because she didn’t want to intimidate a man who might want to marry her, followed by another story of an unmarried woman who wears a wedding ring to conferences so that her colleagues show her more respect. Adichie presents these anecdotes in a deliberate, matter-of-fact style. She keeps heightened emotions and urgency out of her voice, instead making use of poignant pauses to let what is she is saying sink in. It’s a powerful message, recorded in a way that will make people listen again and again. A Knopf paperback.
This brief reflection on the state of gender in contemporary society is told in quiet but firm tones by its author. Listeners will shake their heads as she recounts the multiple microaggressions faced by young women in Nigeria. The sexism at the root of each anecdote resonates because the stereotypes are universal. Adichie makes her point with a steady, even tone, and through her strong thesis, she gives voice to the many contradictions women cope with in our contemporary world. Equally important, she challenges men to recognize how these issues limit people of both genders. The entire essay can be listened to at all once during a long drive or wait. Listeners may want to rewind a few of the sections more than once. M.R. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
June 15, 2017
If anything about this sounds familiar, that might be because you may have already come across the TEDxEuston talk of the same name, presented by Adichie in December 2012 and widely circulated. Think of that as a highly successful test run, and consider investing the mere 45 minutes to listen to Adichie (again) in this extended version as she explains why she is a "Happy African Feminist Who Does Not Hate Men and Who Likes To Wear Lip Gloss and High Heels for Herself and Not for Men." Adichie's tone seems light, and she uses ironic humor brilliantly throughout--how a childhood friend first called her a feminist at age 14 in "the same tone with which a person would say, 'You're a supporter of terrorism.'" But she doesn't shy away from getting angry, dismantling stereotypes, exposing inequity, and demanding change. Adichie's own definition of a feminist is simply empowering: "a man or a woman who says, 'Yes, there's a problem with gender as it is today, and we must fix it, we must do better.'" VERDICT Libraries aware of Adichie's global popularity will surely want to spread her concise, common-sense, inclusive feminism.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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This brief reflection on the state of gender in contemporary society is told in quiet but firm tones by its author. Listeners will shake their heads as she recounts the multiple microaggressions faced by young women in Nigeria. The sexism at the root of each anecdote resonates because the stereotypes are universal. Adichie makes her point with a steady, even tone, and through her strong thesis, she gives voice to the many contradictions women cope with in our contemporary world. Equally important, she challenges men to recognize how these issues limit people of both genders. The entire essay can be listened to at all once during a long drive or wait. Listeners may want to rewind a few of the sections more than once. M.R. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
