Read this article on the controversial ted talk by chimamanda adichie and it is interesting I just took a part of it. But to read the whole article go to this site saharareporters.com/2014/07/29/adichies-feminism-vacuums-and-fallacies-gonzaga

Adichie’s Feminism: Vacuums And
Fallacies By A. Gonzaga
The general tendency of Adichie spitting out her
half-baked opinions on just about every subject is
worrying for reasons much more serious than
their mere shallowness. It’s always a shameful
thing to see Internet users—who don’t pretend to
be intellectuals—submitting in the comment
sections of publications counter-opinions that make mincemeat of those presented and
promoted by the ‘intellectual’.

There has been much backlash towards
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘feminist’ views,
as well as towards her tasteless style of
performance.
Chimamanda Adichie
I have, until now, wanted to stay out of the
debate, mainly because of her arguments being
pathetic as opposed to well-thought-out. But as
the conversation has grown on social media—it
seems to linger eternally, for Adichie keeps
fuelling it with her well-timed, divisive remarks—I
realise thoroughly the significance of the debate
per se, and the need for me to partake in it. I
should mention here that because of certain
factors I consider myself well-positioned to
examine and to present opinions on the matters
in question.
1) The first is that the Igbo culture of south-
eastern Nigeria, which Adichie constantly
attempts to exploit to support her positions, is
equally mine.
2) I left Nigeria to study and settle overseas at
about the same age as Adichie. I left Nigeria for
Finland at the age of 20, in 2005, and she left
Nigeria for the US at the age of 19, eight years
before. She’s currently 36. I’m 29. Indeed, one
might wonder why leaving Nigeria as a young
person is pertinent, and I’ll explain as we proceed.
3) I have since been an integrated member of a
society, country and region where the goal of
feminism was first realised, and where it has
thrived the most—in short and in fact: where it
originated and has achieved its ultimate goal. I’m
talking of Finland and the larger Scandinavia. (I
should state clearly that I live in Finland, visit
Nigeria often, and now write to you from Finland.)
I intend to tackle this issue supporting my points
with ‘the age factor’ and ‘the fact that I can claim a
better practical knowledge of feminism than
Adichie can.’ I’ll make references where
necessary, however, to the first factor of ‘the Igbo
culture being equally mine’.
Adichie said we should all be feminists, backing
that call with a series of shallow points—the most
controversial of which was her argument that
‘Nigerians raise girls wrongly and in ways that
make them feel guilty for being born girls’.
I heard this and it troubled me. I had to wonder
which societies she speaks of: were they the
southern Nigerian ones of the Igbo and Yoruba,
or the northern ones? For, as most Igbo adults
know, women are today better educated in
Igboland than the men. And even when it comes
to employment after graduation—there isn’t
much to be had in the country in the way of
career opportunities, irrespective of one’s gender.
Folks are being trained for economic areas that
do not exist in Nigeria. But even so, the few
employment opportunities in Nigeria today


Not
long ago I tried having a conversation on
feminism with a black South African feminist—
herself a writer just like Adichie. She was
incapable of submitting a single point that was
valid. In the end she gave a miserable example of
a girl in rural South Africa who, on her way to
school, has to stop at a river to wash herself
because she isn’t furnished with sanitary pads by
her parents. When I asked whether this was a
case of gender inequality or plain poverty, she
responded by exiting the conversation.
Although I never took Adichie seriously from the
get-go, a certain reaction of hers did put the final
nail in the coffin as far as my assessment of her
opinions goes. That ultimate event took place very
close to where I live, in Sweden precisely. Adichie
was visiting a gathering there, and when a
member of the audience asked for her judgment
of the Swedish society and people, she answered
that she hadn’t been very impressed. Her reason
was that as she struggled with multiple bags in a
hotel elevator, citizens stood by and watched who
could have helped or simply offered to assist her.
Such a thing wouldn’t have happened in her
beloved Nigeria, she said.
The guests were unimpressed with her reaction,
and I quickly discerned her misguided belief in
eating her cake and having it too. Adichie is
ignorant of the unnerving truism that in the
genuinely feminist countries, like up here in
Scandinavia, women and men cater to their own
needs and nobody gives a real damn about
anybody. How does she expect to be a hard-core
feminist and still want other humans to assist her
in carrying her bags? Seeing that particular video
clip, I knew immediately of her unfamiliarity with
the fact that at the very core of the idea of
feminism, lies the most advanced form of
selfishness the world has ever known.
Feminism has been my reality for all of my adult
life. Well over ninety per cent of Scandinavian
females are inherently feminist—it’s our rule, not
the exception—so I do know what I speak of. And
so if we agree that feminism typically starts out as
a journey, then it’s accurate to indicate that
Scandinavia has long reached the final destination
of that journey. The simple facts of life up here,
which I’ll now present and of which Adichie and
her fellow African feminists appear to be
unaware, should enable the very same Africans,
who’ve been under her constant onslaught, to
envisage their society’s future if they should be
gullible enough to toe the feminist line.
The women of Finland were the first in the entire
world to be granted the ballot. The year was 1906.
Norway followed in 1913. And then Denmark and
Iceland in 1915. But one can always juxtapose for
the purposes of clarity. On August 26, 1920—
fourteen years after Finland did it—the 19th
Amendment granted the ballot to American
women. In February 1918 British women over the
age of 30 received the right to vote, but suffrage
rights for men and women were not equalised
before 1928 in that country my Nigerian
compatriots think is their God—that’s 22 years
after Finland took the step. France was in 1944.
Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Yugoslavia were in
1946. Switzerland was only in 1971—and that’s six
years before Adichie was born—while
Liechtenstein, a country in the very heart of
Europe, had to wait until 1984, my year of birth.
Approaching independence, both the men and
the women of Nigeria voted jointly in 1951—and
it was the first time for each of the sexes. In other
words, there was never a time in the history of
Nigeria when only men were allowed to vote. I
should also emphasise that Nigerian women were
20 years ahead of their Swiss equals.
As a people who initiated feminism and have
finally arrived at the journey’s final destination—a
state of existence completely unimaginable to the
likes of Adichie—this is how we live as
Scandinavians:
1. There is no chivalry left in the land. Men open
doors for themselves. Women open for
themselves. Anything other than that is foreign
and the exception, not the rule.
2. Men pay their bills. Women pay theirs. A
couple visits a café, the man pays for his coffee
and the lady pays for hers. Anything other than
that is foreign and the exception, not the rule.
3. Men do not compliment women. Instead,
because men and women are engaged in an
eternal battle for equality, each party expects to
be complimented. Anything other than that is
foreign and the exception, not the rule.
4. Like the French and the Germans jointly told
Britain when that island nation pushed to
renegotiate its EU membership conditions: The
European Union as an organisation isn’t an à la
carte setting where one enters and decides what
to take and what to omit. You either are fully in,
or fully out. Put differently: there’s no such thing
as cherry picking when attempting to adopt
feminism. You can’t say ‘I want that aspect of it,
but not the other one’. It is and will always be a
chain of realities—imperceptibly linked—and
once you try securing an element, be sure to
welcome the rest which will inevitably follow.
5. We Scandinavians have championed the
feminist cause since time immemorial. Still, our
women over here have yet to invent anything
beyond roadside hair salons. The national
innovation coffers are accessible to both sexes
equally. But it’s the men who continue to invent
and innovate and help this region maintain its
spot as the leading innovator globally. That’s to
say that there is no proof that feminism could
turn women into the world’s top inventors of
things and founders of top companies. The reality
in Finland, after one hundred years of feminism
and equal opportunities, is that men alone still
found the major companies whose taxes take
care of the nation, and when such firms employ
women it isn’t purely for their skills but also for
the sake of diversity.
6. Unfortunate rivalry or war between the sexes
is big in our homes and workplaces.
7. Our families are often broken and passionate
love is now foreign or the exception.
8. It’s not uncommon for our children to be
victimised by battling parents, and for them to be
eventually raised by the government.
9. We no longer make enough offspring to
perpetuate our civilisation.
10. And finally: there is little to zero love,
kindness, and humaneness left around here. We
seem to have stifled all of it with the warring
energy we’ve been emitting for the past hundred
years. This was the reason nobody thought it
necessary to assist Adichie in carrying her bags in
Sweden. Any citizen who argues the opposite is
either delusional or merely lying.
I’m wrapping up and probing: Do I enjoy having
such a gloomy reality as a member of the Finnish
society? I certainly don’t. Can I live with it? I have
been living with it and am now very used to
having it as my reality. But would I like to see the
same system replicated in Nigeria—my first
country? The answer is a strong no. Tellingly,
when Adichie was then asked in Sweden about
how she sees Nigeria evolving and the sort of
society it might eventually become; she answered
that she hopes it evolves into its own kind of
society and doesn’t resemble the Swedish one.
Rather shamefully, this was the same Adichie who
fights tooth and nail to export Scandinavia’s
feminism to that same beloved Nigeria—her only
refuge, my only refuge, from the madness of our
joint Western existence. And she’s eager to wreak
havoc over there in Nigeria with her tireless
presentation of impulsive sermons, keen to upset
the balance, and one suspects it’s also because
she’s desperate to sell more books—at the
expense of her own people’s lives and happiness
now and later.

First I'd like to thank the op for this amazing and totally true exposé.

Feminism in its totality i.e no cherry picking is what is killing the social world gradually. The U.S is also towing this part and it's not unrelated to the increasing divorce rate and singlemotherhood plaguing the country

Like my atheist lawyer friend usually say * you can't have it both ways*

Lalasticlala should do the needful and let folks be enlightened

Warm hugs op, Warm hugs!

Thanks op for this... I have always dispised dat woman's brand of feminism.

Nice one Op

Hmmmmm

I believe if they want feminism they should get it but they should start complaining later

thanks op, I remember in my university days, one has to queue for almost everything, the same females that always champion feminism will be the people who will be wailing and pleading ladies first whenever their is a need to queue to receive admission letter, sign out after exams or to pay for association dues