Friday 10 January 2014

My Thoughts on Feminism

Hello everyone!

I recently watched a Ted talk by a lovely Nigerian lady whose name is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and it was a about feminism (click here to watch). This video really inspired me to write this post. I would say that I myself am a Feminist. Now, now before you all start shouting and groaning saying "ugh not this again" HOLD ON, let me explain a few things first...

Being a feminist doesn't mean I burn bras, or don't shave my underarms, or that I despise men. A feminist (in my opinion) is a man or a woman who believes that the social, political and all other rights of women should be equal to men. Notice that in my definition I said that a man or a woman could be a feminist. I think that this is totally true, you don't have to be a woman to stand up for women rights, however that is the usual clichĂ©. Believe me I love make-up, shopping, getting manicures  and basically all things that would be considered as "girly", nonetheless I still am a huge advocate of equal rights.

Many people say that you should not say aloud you are a feminist as "it will detract men from you". To be quite frank I couldn't care less if a man if a man did not like the idea of a feminist, I wouldn't be interested in him anyway. I don't think many people understand that my sole purpose in life is to simply go to school, attend university, get married, have kids and die. There is so much more.

I am still in the midst of my secondary schooling education. I go to a mixed school (boys and girls) and it simply infuriates me when I am talking about feminism passionately and someone has the audacity to say "calm down" or "stop overreacting". It particularly gets to me when guys say rude things that diminish girls in a completely sexist way and they simply laugh it off. I mean stand up for yourself! In my opinion we should all be feminists.

Like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said herself I am a happy feminist. People see feminists as unhappy women living on their own with a dozen cats (which by the way I wouldn't mind because I love cats). A feminist is someone who stands up for women's rights and there is nothing wrong or "unhappy" about that.

I really encourage you all to watch the talk I mentioned earlier in the post (here). It's funny yet informative, captivating and really captures the essence of a feminist.

We should all be feminists.


-Padfoot



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