Short Book: We Should All Be Feminists
For the short book assignment, I read “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is based on a Ted Talk of the same name, given in 2013 in the U.K. The theme of the conference was “Inspiring Ideas about Africa.” Here is the link for the Ted Talk. In many places, the wording of the book comes verbatim from the speech. The book details Adichie’s personal experiences with gender discrimination and her journey to realizing what the word “feminism” means. She shares a lot of anecdotes from Nigerian and American cultures, and details the various connotations of the word “feminist,” from several lenses. This Ted Talk was very famous and went on to be quoted in a Beyonce song. You can hear Chimamanda speaking at minute 1:26 of the song Flawless.
I can think of many ways in which I could use this book and/or Ted Talk as the basis of an English lesson based in Social Justice. First of all, it is a great opportunity to differentiate for students who find success from different modalities – they can choose whether they want to read or listen to the speech. I took notes on many specific moments in the book that I would like to explore in class with students.
The main activity that comes to mind is presenting a quote from the speech, and having students discuss/debate about it. This would be a great way for students to practice language skills in a real context, while expressing their own opinions about an abstract, relevant and controversial concept. This activity could be written or spoken, and it could take the form of a formative or summative assessment. The prompt is below.
Choose one of the following quotes. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Connect to at least three examples from your personal life, the media, literature or from the real world in order to defend your opinion.
- “If we do something over and over again, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over again, it becomes normal… If we keep seeing only men as heads of corporations, it starts to seem ‘natural’ that only men should be heads of corporations.” (pg. 13)
- “Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice. I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change.” (pg. 21)
- “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.” (pg. 34)
There are many other examples from the text that I could possibly use, but here are three to begin with. The book embodies the core concept of gender that we have discussed in class. Adichie explores gender norms from many different perspectives, and the book is brimming with specific challenges, and creative solutions regarding gender discrimination.
Hi Katie, thanks for sharing such a thoughtful reflection on the book “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I almost missed your post!! I also read the book and loved it but had no idea that it was in a Beyoncé song! Thanks for sharing the link to the song!! I love this book so much more now! I wish more people would realize feminism is not just about angry women who hate all men, don’t wear deodorant and don’t shave. It’s about a just society for all.
I like that you are always differentiating for students, making sure to add in different types of modalities for students is so important! You are going to rock as a teacher!! I would have loved to have been in your room as a student! I think you brought up some great ideas about using this book as a resource for social justice in the classroom with students to discuss/debate these topics. I have a question for you what age group and or level would you do this type of lesson with?
Yanci – Thanks for your response to my post! I’m so glad you know about the Beyoncé connection now! You made my day by saying that stuff about me as a teacher, I really appreciate it!
I think this type of lesson could be good for high school or older, but I’m sure there are ways I could possibly adapt it to make it more approachable for younger students!
Hi Katie,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the book “We Should All Be Feminist” by Imamanda Ngozi Adichie. I’ve been meaning to read this book for a while and after reading your reflection, I am excited to start reading it. I agree with what Yanci said above. Many people that I encountered believe that feminists are just a bunch of women who hate men, but that isn’t true. As a feminist, I would want to be seen as equal to men and have the freedom to do what I want.
I like the idea of having students agree and disagree with quotes from the book. I think this would be a great opportunity for students to use different sources such as personal experiences or the literature to support their position. I was wondering in the future if you have a chance to use this book as part of your lesson or unit, how would you work with students who don’t believe that feminism is real, or they don’t think that it is a “big” deal.
Sharon – Thanks for your response! I agree with what you said about feminism. I think the idea of students using other literature to support their positions is a great one! I love the framework Jason often uses with text to text, text to self, text to world connections.
If I encountered students who didn’t think sexism was a serious problem, that would be a major challenge for me. At this point, I don’t know what I would do… Will have to keep brainstorming!
Hi Katie! Thank you for such a thoughtful reflection on “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. My claim to fame is that she was the speaker at my undergraduate commencement ceremony. It was SO inspiring, as is all of her work.
I want to second Yanci’s comment on your differentiation. I love how tangible your reflection is and how you are thinking not only in terms of classroom activities, but also assessment. I think this text presents such a great opportunity to also bring in race, class, and sexual identity. What happens when these identities converge? How do they impact one another? How do these social identities impact the extent to which individuals really have freedom of choice? This could lead to some really fruitful, authentic communication in the classroom. Similar to Sharon, I am wondering how you envision working with students who think feminism is a leftist agenda or unnecessary? I suppose this has been the question of the semester, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Sydney – that is so cool that she was the speaker at your school! I really appreciate your kind words. I love the idea of connecting with intersectionality here, thanks for that.
It would be so tough to work with students that thought feminism was unnecessary. That is a challenge I do not know how to surmount yet.
Hi Katie – yes I like this book not just because of its content but also for its multimodality as well. It’s also very clearly written, providing affordances for language classrooms. I like the three quotations you provided and I agree – these are great prompts for assessing/practicing speaking. Much better than explain what you did over the summer. One thing that may be criticized about the book is – and I am not sure about this because it’s been a while since I read and my copy is in Monterey now – that it focuses on women’s rights in particular, but more so of cisgender women’s rather than transgender women’s? Or you can say both?
Deniz- That may be true, I don’t recall much mention of transgender women.
If I remember correctly, there was some controversy over transphobic comments made by Adichie: https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/3/15/14910900/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-transgender-women-comments-apology