Book Reviews

Mitchelstown student Amy O’Brien is a self confessed ‘activist and advocate’, passionate about equity and justice, with a love for reading and baking too.

Amy continues with her book review for readers of TheAvondhu. To access these books for free, visit your local library online or in person. This week’s book is:

We should all be feminists - by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This pocket sized book has been adapted from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDX speech, also called ‘We Should All Be Feminists’.

This eloquently argued essay gives the reader another, interesting view on feminism and offers us a unique understanding of the term ‘feminist’. The writer roots all her beliefs and values in inclusion and awareness, so important messaging are central to this read.

She shares stories and anecdotes about her great grandmother, friends and proving her worth as a writer. She passionately believes we must raise children differently, beyond rigid understandings of girl and boy, to create a fairer society and future for everyone, of every gender. The strength of her opinions and voice is inspiring and I’d like to share my favourite quote from this speech, ‘Culture does not make people.’ She continued, ‘People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.’

Drawing extensively from her own life and encounters, I think she aims to unpick sexual politics. Yet, the outcome of this piece isn’t the breakdown or abandonment of the term ‘feminist’, impactfully, she instead presents new ideas and routes for feminism.

This exploration of what it means to be a woman is exactly that, an exploration! It is void of a single answer or one doctrine that everyone must fit into but what rings clear is… why we should ALL be feminists, because of rather than despite, the multiplicities of its meanings!