Feminism may be defined as the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes (male and female). Feminism is a reaction to gender. As a biological fact, human beings are born as either of the male or female sex. But maleness or femaleness considered not merely as a biological fact but with reference to socio-cultural functions, norms and attitudes, is what is meant by gender.
Feminism means different things to different people. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a feminist, but not a feminist in the Western connotation of the term. Western Feminism [paradigmized in such works as: Kate Millett, Sexual Politics (1969); Griffin et al., STIRRING IT: Challenges for Feminism (1994)] cannot accommodate Chimamanda’s unpacking of her feminism (she is an African feminist who likes men). Western feminism is about a war of the sexes. Chimamanda cannot be admitted into this war because she is a happy African feminist who wears lip gloss and high heels for herself and does not hate men.
Chimamanda, when you read her carefully, is rather a humanist, passionate about equality and fairness between the sexes, between men and women. This passion underlies her much-celebrated novel Americanah in every detail and is epitomized in the main character and heroine, Ifemelu, who outmatches the co-main character, Obinzi, in her strength of character and self-assertiveness. Ifemelu comes over as an unapologetic serial polyandrist, more than equal to any putative serial polygamist. She is a veritable shero and female Casanova.
Men and women endowed with physical beauty, intellectual strength and material wherewithal, have a natural tendency towards sampling attractive members of the opposite sex, thereby often ending up in random sexual experimentations. The only problem being that the sexual philandering of the men is accepted, excused, taken for granted or even encouraged by society at large, especially within some cultures such as African culture, while that of the women is severely abhorred and tabooed.
Equals ought to be treated equally. This is the first principle of human rights. But equality does not mean uniformity. However, if open expression of sexuality, let alone sexual adventurism, is permitted, tolerated or even encouraged for men, a clearly convincing reason is needed to forbid the same for women. A human being is a human being simply by being a human being and not for any other reason. When we talk of human rights, therefore, like the right to life, the right to self-expression, the right to pursue happiness, the right to not be treated unfairly, etc., we are talking about rights that must apply equally and equitably to all human beings, male, female or genderless. Beyond and above her very fascinating art, Chimamanda is a passionate crusader for equality, equity and fairness among human beings as human beings.
Recent Comments