We Should All Be Feminists: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

During my last semester of undergraduate studies at Roosevelt University, I had the opportunity to study Feminist Theories in Performance. This course was basically the study of feminism in performances, rather it was seen in plays, film, or on the TV. 

The idea of this course was for us to identify different waves of feminism in many different periods. For example, we read & examined Caryle Churchill's "Cloud Nine" which speaks to first & second wave of feminism by allowing readers analyze the social constructed gender norms that were set in the early 18th century, but which caused more social problems during the 1960's. 

In this course, I learned a lot of different theories and ideas about the waves of feminism. For example, there are three waves of feminism. The first wave of feminism happened way back around the late 19th century...creeping into the 20th century. This wave emerged out of urban industrial, liberal and social politics.  This was the beginning cry out for equal rights and opportunity for women.

The second wave was founded during the 1960's & then continued to spread to the 1990's. This wave focused mainly on sexuality and reproductive rights of the woman. This wave allowed women to find & have a voice. 

The third wave (which is my favorite) emerged out of the mid-1990's & focuses on post-colonial and post-modern thinking. A quote that basically sums up this wave, "It's possible to have a push up bra and a brain at the same time." 

I briefly just summed up my understanding of the different waves in the most simple way that I could so that it becomes an easy concept to accept. 

Recently, Beyonce incorporated a piece of feminism in one of her recently songs, "Flawless" 
Now.....
Before anyone shames Beyonce for doing this...first listen to the speech that Beyonce used to support her reasons for sampling specific feminist ideas. I heard the speech a couple of years ago on a blog but my Feminist Theories course & Beyonce's song, have allowed me to better pay attention to this speech. This speech has opened my mind & allowed me to think differently about how constructed I've been as a woman. Actually, very life-changing.

After learning about the basic meanings of feminism, it should better for you to understand this clip that I chose by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the topic of feminism. 

Quotes that stuck out to not only Beyonce, but to feminists everywhere:

"We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: ‘You can have ambition but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful. Otherwise you will threaten the man." 

"We raise girls to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men."

"Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support, but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same?"

Here's the thing...

A lot of us will not & have not openly came out about being a feminist, but if you believe in the social, political, & economical equality of the sexes...then you are indeed a feminist. 

We never really paid attention to certain commercials that constructed gender norms...for example, during a laundry commercial, how come there is ALWAYS & mostly ONLY a woman doing the laundry. We never see a man participating in the laundry process or helping his wife during laundry. The constructed norm here is that...women are suppose to do laundry. Women are better at doing laundry than running a business meeting or driving a foreign car in a BMW or Bentley commercial. 
Now...I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with a woman doing laundry, if she finds joy in doing so, but there is something wrong if that woman ONLY does laundry to keep peace in her house or because she is being forced to do so. 
However, that is another blog. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's video....What do you think??