We Should All Be Feminists

EDIT: Because I have so many people constantly arguing that I'm in the wrong for being concerned about this author's intentions, I did some Googling, and found out that this author publicly supported JKR's anti-trans essay. Adichie also continues (at the time I'm editing this) to stand her ground on her opinion that trans women do not deserve the same support as cis women. If you can read the article I just linked, read this review, and read this essay, and still think Adichie is an inclusive feminist, I don't know how to help you see otherwise.

You can also read here about how Adichie demanded that her name be pulled off of Akwaeke Emezi's works after Emezi called her out for her transphobia — this is not an isolated incident.

Nobody could be more disappointed or shocked than me.

We Should All Be Feminists does a lot of things right. It's a quick, easy read that offers some great insight into the basic gist of why feminism is important.

That said, this novella has a lot of problems, with the worst of those being heteronormativity and trans-erasure. Adichie goes to great lengths to completely ignore the mere existence of queer and/or trans individuals, with endless gendered language and assumptions. She revisits the “women are biologically inferior” argument many times (which she is essentially in favor of - yikes). She literally even says at one point that she wondered while writing this if women have specific genes to improve their domestic capabilities, like cooking. I've face-palmed so many times in the last twenty minutes.

I wish I was exaggerating, but this entire novella left me speechless. I'm genuinely not sure why it's being lauded as some flawless piece of feminist work, when it is riddled with issues from start to finish. I thought I would have a new favorite author, and instead, I'm just pissed off.

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