Quote of the Week
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Yesterday was her birthday so I’ve got an Adichie quote today even though I already shared a bunch of them when I posted about Americanah. This one comes from her book We Should All Be Feminists. I also just got the email that her other novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, is waiting for me at the library after being “on hold” for several weeks. I’m excited to pick it up!
Some people ask: “Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?”
Because that would be dishonest.
Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general – but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender.
It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It would be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. That the problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human.
For centuries, the world divided human beings into two groups and then proceeded to exclude and oppress one group. It is only fair that the solution to the problem acknowledge that.
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Last week’s quote