Batla 1

Daniel Shafi Batla

Zainab Sattar

SS 100

30th April 2021

We Should All be Feminists: The need to change from the grassroots

It is the 21st Century, and the human race is still arguing if the people of different sexes

deserve the same rights; it still discusses if the norms valid during the times when we were

animalistic are still valid. It is still not on terms with the idea that every human comes with a

brain, and the peripherals of their body, and can produce beautiful outcomes and should not be

deprived of opportunities just because of their sex. Many of us still think it is justified for one

sex to be oppressed, be pushed down, and silenced just because we were culturally taught that

way. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian feminist writer, in her Ted Talk titled: We should

All Be Feminists, addresses this problem in a holistic manner taking an anecdotal approach. She

discusses gender and the problem with society having different expectations for having specific

sex. She talks about several problems that women face that men do not even bother to think

about and addresses the elephant in the room by highlighting the problem with the upbringing of

our little boys and girls that makes them conform to the sexist norms. Statistics and official

statements do not back Adichie’s talk; however, the narration of events that women face made it

relatable while providing strength to her arguments and captivating her audience. She

highlighted several important issues that women face every day while skimming over the reasons

why the society is sexist, proposing a bilateral approach to make our world a more inclusive

place.
 Batla 2

Right off the gate, it is essential to distinguish between sex and gender. Sex represents

sexual organs assigned to us at birth; gender is the culturally evolved expectation of behaviour

based on sex. It is the preconceived notion of how one should act if they have a particular type of

sexual organs. It is a binary mess that thrashes creativity and imprisons many free souls that

would have spread their colours otherwise. Further studies established that gender is a spectrum

that ranges from masculine to feminine that we assign to acts typically done by men or women.

This idea is unnecessarily restrictive and represses the identity of the person that they would

have otherwise had. In another of her Ted Talks called the dangers of a single story, Adichie tells

how devastating it is to form an idea about something by listening to one story (10:30-12:00).

She describes how culture has sowed bias by telling a single story that women are emotional,

weak, and incapable, which is not true. This is the story we have heard because our society re-

presses women and we are not ready to go further from that single story; we are not ready to hear

the struggles, the contributions, and the prowess of women without which humanity would not

have existed She talks about how there is an expectation for little girls to contribute to household

chores, speak softly, and be mannered to unhuman standards, just to make them favourable

brides while not caring about their goals and ambitions. She also talks about how we train little

boys to suppress emotions, act strong, man up, promote actions that detach them from their hu-

man nature, which consequentially inflates their ego when they are angry, insensitive, and toxi-

cally masculine. Whilst we teach our little girls that they are supposed to keep a low profile when

it comes to success, their success should not emasculate and threaten men and keep their ego in-

flated (Adichie 12-13). She talks about how this type of upbringing is problematic as it intro-

duces an unnecessary and harmful divide between the two sexes. When we talk about how we

promote macho standards in men, it is essential to understand how slight changes in power dy-
 Batla 3

namics become threatening for them and how they try to detach themselves from their emotions.

Society makes it hard for men to cry, have compassion, express their love, and apologize (Bal-

doni 12:30–14:00). How many desi Dads apologize after having an anger rage at their kids even

though they realize it was uncalled? This establishes a hideous power structure where men do not

listen or accommodate just to exhibit their strength. This also changes their attitude towards

problems that women face. Susan Jhirad wrote in an article about her class, how men in her class

wanted the woman to be held accountable for killing her abusive husband when discussing a

piece where the wives if detective hid evidence that could have showed the motive, while the

women in the class felt that supporting her was right as they were empathetic towards the wife.

(Jhirad 1)

Sexism and Gender discrimination are extensively discussed in Adichie’s talk. She shares

multiple events from her own life and the lives of others that display the disparity in how women

are treated. She tells how every time she would go to a restaurant; the server would attend the

man, there would be clubs where single women would not be admitted, tipping the people at

parking lots would make them think, it was coming from the accompanying man and other cases

of casual sexism that are faced by women daily. She also talks introduces the problems of the

wage gap, the systemic privilege of men, the lack of opportunities for women. Even if they take

leadership opportunities, they are expected to behave a certain way and not exhibit a strong sense

of leadership, be lenient and likeable. She talks about the rampant mansplaining that goes on in

the corporate world and how employers would ignore the ideas from their female employees and

appreciate a similar suggestion from their male counterparts. She talks about how men do not

even notice these incidences until they are made to realize. Sexism and gender discrimination
 Batla 4

have existed ever since the dawn of human society. The hierarchy was based upon physical capa-

bilities such as weightlifting and carrying goods that benefited the males as they had better train-

ing and higher levels of testosterone but mainly better training. Some feminists concede, includ-

ing Adichie, that it was justified as humans were significantly animalistic back in the day, but

what does not make sense is, women alongside men have contributed equally to the human soci-

ety if not more, even if they were not as physically strong as men back in the day. It is just that

we have always glorified men and the positions that they take while ignoring the positions and

contributions of women (Santasombat 134).

If the physical strength of women was a valid argument for giving preferential treatment

to men back in the day, the argument today is moot because the leadership positions rarely

require physical strength and even in opportunities that require physical strength, women have

successfully fulfilled their demands. We have examples from the pandemic that have shown that

countries being led by women death better with the pandemic than the countries navigated by

egotistic males. We have seen the chaos Boris Johnson brought upon the UK when Jacinda

Ardern celebrated the eradication of Covid cases in New Zealand. Brains are more valuable tools

in today’s age of automation than brute strength as, thanks to modern engineering techniques, we

have the machinery to do a lot of our labour-intensive work.

When we talk about Feminism, it is essential to talk about the differences in the experi-

ences of women belonging to different ethnicities, religion, and regions and the need for intersec-

tional Feminism. Feminism cannot be primarily focused on issues of white women that have an

advantage over women in the developing world as they have developed services. Women in the

UK, Canada do not have health concerns of the magnitude as they do in Pakistan or India, where

Breast cancer is still one of the most lethal cancers (“The Necessity of Awareness of Breast Can-
 Batla 5

cer amongst Women in Pakistan” ). Their experiences of women in Saudi Arabia are not like

those of them living in other parts of the world where women cannot dress freely, where police

make sure they cover their heads, which is why there is a need for Feminism to ameliorate the

conditions of women and grant them the stature that men have held for so long. It is the idea of

an inclusive movement that works globally to ensure women’s entitlement to their body, health-

care, education, and socioeconomic equality, where we take steps that make up for the wrongdo-

ings of centuries. It stands up for the rights of Transgender people, abortion, the LGBTQ+ com-

munity and demands justice for victims of harassment, assault, rape, murder, and abuse, unequal

inheritance. It highlights the disparity in the conditions of women from the developing world and

the developed world, both of whom are disadvantaged compared to men. However, one group is

struggling more than the other because of the other identities associated with them and the so-

ciopolitical conditions of their countries.

The socioeconomic status of women in the current status quo has been framed by the sys-

temic privilege of men depriving women of opportunities that they rightfully develop. If the op-

portunities for men and women are compared, a humongous difference is visible. In Pakistan, we

rarely see women running small businesses such as grocery shops, dry cleaning etc., a tiny seg-

ment goes ahead towards the corporate world, medicine, or academia, where they struggle far

more than their male counterparts to climb up the hierarchy and even if they do, they are paid

less for the same job .In The United States, for every dollar that a white man makes, a white

woman makes 79 cents, a black woman makes 62 cents and a Hispanic or Latino woman makes

54 cents(Bleiweis). If an alien was told that an actress is paid less than the actor for a movie in

our world, even though they both acted reasonably and were equally important to the plot, even it

would despise our insecurities and biases. This disparity has created many grave problems for
 Batla 6

women, as parents prefer education of their sons over their daughters, a lot of them are left uned-

ucated and are unable to be the breadwinners. Even if they are the breadwinners, they are sup-

posed to keep a low profile otherwise it would be emasculating for men. The idea of being

providers in men makes them feel they are entitled to the services of the women at their house

and it is passed down to them as early learners, as Adichie narrated “the sister was told to make

Indomie for the brother” (11) and treat them the same way when they work with them. This has

created problems for women to flourish in their workplace as they tend to have an attitude which

is “likable” (15) and not necessarily themselves and which causes hindrances in their progress

which Adichie narrates about her American friends not calling their employers out for appreciat-

ing the idea of her male colleague that she had already presented before. We associate strong

traits like leadership and wisdom to males from childhood, depriving Adichie of the opportunity

to be the class monitor and sowing these seeds of sexism has detrimental effects on ambitious

students that would soar otherwise.

Feminism is a movement for a wonderful cause run by wonderful people. It highlights the

problem that a demographic is facing based on gender and we must do something about it. It is a

platform that has given women around the world to voice their concerns and to call for change.

Even though it calls for so much positive change, it is perceived as one of the most negative

movements. People, primarily men, argue, why is Feminism about gender, why does it not talk

about human rights, which is correct to a certain degree as rights of women are human rights;

however, the need for it to run as a separate movement, as Adichie explains, comes from the fact

that women are treated differently because of their gender. Women are not given the same oppor-

tunities for no other reason other than the fact that they are women; parents do not allow their

daughters late at night because streets are dangerous for women. It is disappointing when women
 Batla 7

try to correct the status quo; their movement is attached with negative baggage, and feminists are

characterized as men haters, bra burners and unreasonable women that are a threat to society. In-

terestingly, as an evolving young feminist, she would attach justifications that would characterize

her as a “different feminist” from the stereotyped image that society presents. Due to this nega-

tive image, other young feminists also attach justifications to their feminist identity, as Sophia

Hagen in one of her stand-up comedy shows tells how she evolved from adjusting to the idea of

Not All Men to Yes, All Men are a part of the problem ( 01:30–02:43)as they take advantage of

their privilege and not join the struggle to make a level playing field, they keep silent when they

find out that one of their friends is a harasser, and are not willing to break the system that has

them nested comfortably.

To change the system, to make up for the systemic flaws, and to create an equal playing

field, we cannot just pursue equality to make it right. To make up for the centuries of having a

privilege, we must pursue equity, where we take steps to ensure that women around us can take

the same position that once only belonged to a man. We must create opportunities and policies

that make this progress faster and brings about equality. We will have to normalize women in

our society doing everything that a man can do and so much more. We must bring about gender

normativity and create inclusion for women in every circle, from school monitors to engineers,

writers, politicians, and anyone they want to be, ensuring we have a society that maximizes its

sustainable progress and fastens the revolution we wish to inculcate.

Adichie is a highly engaging speaker and writer who established strong arguments even

without statistics as she had a well-defined ethos as she is a stakeholder when it comes to

problems related to women being a Nigerian feminist woman. She uses her ethos to establish

logos by taking an anecdotal approach, narrating events from several women’s lives, packing a
 Batla 8

holistic idea of Feminism, giving her arguments a strong foundation. The anecdotal approach

subserves pathos as it is relatable to her audience as well. She explains the need for Feminism

and by explaining the problems we have created by not unlearning the discriminatory aspects of

the culture and highlights the need to inculcate changes from grassroots and to bring up our

children differently, not to raise our little boys to be comfortable with their privilege and ego and

not to raise our little girls serving to that privilege and their egos.
 Batla 9

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 8

Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. We Should All Be Feminists! New York, Vintage Books, 2014.

Baldoni, Justin. “Why I’m Done Trying to Be ‘Man Enough.’” YouTube, uploaded by TED, 2

Jan. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cetg4gu0oQQ

Bleiweis, Robin. “Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, 24

Mar. 2020, www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-

facts-gender-wage-gap.

Hagen, Sophie. “Feminism As Described By Sofie Hagen.” YouTube, uploaded by Comedy Cen-

tral UK, 6 Oct. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0-fCn2ptvc.

Jhirad, Susan. “Gender Gaps.” The Women’s Review of Books, vol. 7, no. 5, 1990, p. 30. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/402068.

Santasombat, Yos. “Lak Chang: A Reconstruction of Tai Identity in Daikong.” Gender Roles

and Gender Relations, ANU E Press, 2011, pp. 133–35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/

j.ctt24h3gf.11.

“The Necessity of Awareness of Breast Cancer amongst Women in Pakistan.” Journal of Pak-

istan Medical Association, vol. 59, no. 11, 2009, p. 1. JPMA, jpma.org.pk/article-details/

1863.