Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of “We Should All Be Feminists”, defines feminism as “a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes” (47). Adichie is a Nigerian woman who writes a book advocating the equality between men and women’s human deserved rights and about the negative connotation the label feminist brings. For centuries, men have highly benefitted from living in a patriarchal society where men hold predominant roles. Generally speaking, men are paid higher in the work field for the same job, don’t usually fear of being raped when going out to a bar or club, usually hold higher powered positions, and are praised for being the hard working providers. These are all basic human deserved rights that
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Those who want to reach out to a large crowd may benefit more when avoiding the term feminist because people are quick to ignore and not listen to a feminist. Through Kristof and WuDunn’s writing, they reached out to just as many people as Adichie did especially by pointing out certain quotidian cruelties that we fail to report as opposed to an event that happens on a particular day (207). The fact that they don’t label themselves as feminists can really impact the target audience and as well as influencing those who want to make a change. Some people just simply don’t want to listen to a feminist because they are closed minded to others’ opinions and believe that their way of thinking is automatically correct. Kristof and Wudunn discuss certain quotidian cruelties such as “bride burning” which is a ritual “to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so a man can remarry- [bride burnings] take place approximately once every two hours, but these rarely constitute the news” (206). They also discuss where they came across a demographic that outlined a human rights violation where parents in China are more responsive to taking their sick son to the doctors as opposed to girls where they will more than likely wait until the next day to see how she is feeling (206). If they would’ve labeled themselves as feminist from the start, many people would have shut their essay down because they might assume that it is just a way of threatening men’s power. In reality, gender inequality is an epidemic problem where many of us fail to notice because we have become habituated to our everyday surroundings. Just as a journalists hope, Kristof and WuDunn hope everyone reads their essay and gain some insight of the many quotidian cruelties that happen every day and strive to make the world where we can equally live amongst each
Those who want to reach out to a large crowd may benefit more when avoiding the term feminist because people are quick to ignore and not listen to a feminist. Through Kristof and WuDunn’s writing, they reached out to just as many people as Adichie did especially by pointing out certain quotidian cruelties that we fail to report as opposed to an event that happens on a particular day (207). The fact that they don’t label themselves as feminists can really impact the target audience and as well as influencing those who want to make a change. Some people just simply don’t want to listen to a feminist because they are closed minded to others’ opinions and believe that their way of thinking is automatically correct. Kristof and Wudunn discuss certain quotidian cruelties such as “bride burning” which is a ritual “to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so a man can remarry- [bride burnings] take place approximately once every two hours, but these rarely constitute the news” (206). They also discuss where they came across a demographic that outlined a human rights violation where parents in China are more responsive to taking their sick son to the doctors as opposed to girls where they will more than likely wait until the next day to see how she is feeling (206). If they would’ve labeled themselves as feminist from the start, many people would have shut their essay down because they might assume that it is just a way of threatening men’s power. In reality, gender inequality is an epidemic problem where many of us fail to notice because we have become habituated to our everyday surroundings. Just as a journalists hope, Kristof and WuDunn hope everyone reads their essay and gain some insight of the many quotidian cruelties that happen every day and strive to make the world where we can equally live amongst each