Summary:
What does “feminism” mean today? That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Link to the TED Talk on YouTube:
Link to the TED Talk in TED website: http://ed.ted.com/on/WwTf6rSB
My thoughts:
What I loved about Chimamanda’s views is that she says gender issues are a problem for both men and women. Even as a child, I recognized the hardships and discrimination that girls and women faced and thought men have it easy, while women are the only ones struggling. Having read Nancy R.Smith’s brilliant poem a few months back, my perspective was changed. I understood that both genders are facing issues of their own and we need to teach our daughters and sons to be themselves.
I was extremely happy to read a book that put my own scrambled thoughts into coherent words. I was nodding my head in agreement after reading each sentence. Every now and then, I recalled old memories or the experiences of women I knew and became quite overwhelmed. The year has just begun, but I know that this book will be one of my best reads of 2016.
I would call this book a perfect beginner’s guide to feminism. If I haven’t convinced you to read this book yet, you might be interested when you know that every 16-year-old in Sweden is being given this wonderful book. I would recommend it to everyone, especially to the people who incorrectly assume that feminism isn’t needed anymore or misunderstand feminism to be man-hating.
Eclectic Book Reviews 
Hi Anusha!
What do you think about Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to let women drive cars in Delhi?
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I find the whole odd-even rule puzzling. If the idea is to reduce pollution, encouraging more bicycle usage and improving public transport is a better move, rather than encouraging carpooling. It reminds me of a quote I read a long time back that says that a country is not rich when everyone owns a car, but when the rich people use public transport. We could implement good bicycle renting options like in France. We could increase the quantity and quality of bus service.
As to single women getting a pass, I’m not sure how that works. Does it mean that if a woman gets married, her husband automatically becomes the driver of the family? Is it okay for single women to have a bigger carbon footprint? If you make a rule and allow too many exemptions, does it even make sense to have the rule in place?
I foresee two things. First, if someone has to run errands by driving a car, they’d immediately dump that work to a single woman they know. Second, matrimonial ads might look like “Man owning car with odd numbered license plate looking for woman owning car with even numbered license plate.” 😉
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Thy should have researched properly before implementing it. I whas supporting it, until I got to know that cars aren’t major contributors in pollution.
The last part of your reply is just hilarious! I couldn’t agree with you more. Every word.
I like your blog.
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Thanks!
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I want to ask you a question. What do you do? And if money were no object, what would you do?
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I’m a software engineer who reads and writes in her free time. If money was no object, I’d still be a programmer, but would do that part-time/freelance coz I’d like to read and write more.
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[…] This book is an awesome introduction to Feminism. A must read for everyone. I highly recommend this one. Full review here. […]
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