I found this article on Facebook that gives an interesting perspective to this issue of feminism. It's really a MUST READ.

THE CHIMAMMANDA ADICHIES/NKECHI BIANZES/LINDA IKEJIS/JOY ISI BEWAJIS/ FLORIDA UZOARUS OF SOCIETY AND THE PSYCHOANALYTIC CONCEPT OF PENIS ENVY—A must read.

Warning: Article contains very mature content. Reader's discretion advised.

•One of the great blessings of the modern era of the internet and especially social media to social and behavioral scientists, is the benevolence it affords into the minds and thought processes of individuals without ever meeting them in person. This takes away the huge burden of first having to break through their defenses in order to get them to be vulnerable enough for the purpose of psychoanalytic research.

•I must give due credit to the designers of Facebook who surreptitiously coined the question "What's on your mind?" and the invention of the 'Like' button which work in a well orchestrated connivance to seduce the thought processes of unsuspecting individuals for psychoanalytic scrutiny.

•The "What's on your mind" question makes a demand on the subconscious and emboldens individuals to break their own natural defenses and bear the contents of their minds while the "Like" button stimulates the reward centres of the brain, compelling people to reveal things they will not ordinarily reveal about themselves.

•On the broader spectrum of social media platforms, the need for approval, social validation and cheap fame has driven many others to be a little too forward with their personal opinions and controversial stances, with the hope of reaping some attention or accolades.

•We may all be too familiar with the axioms: "The mind of the man is the man himself"; consequently, "You are what you post", and there's the classic admonition to watch our thoughts because they metamorphose into words, actions and ultimately our destinies.

•It goes down to the fact that the kinds of posts we give our revered "thumbs-up" to, share and comment on, reveals issues that connect deeply with our personal thought patterns as well. The reason why we may 'like' a post is traceable to the poster's ability to articulate thoughts that resonates with us. Therefore the espouser of a certain ideology and the approvals gotten through likes, shares and comments reflects a commonality somewhere. You can also tell a lot about people by who they admire.

•It is therefore not surprising that the self-styled quintet of Chimamanda Adichie, Nkechi Bianze, Linda Ikeji, Joy Isi Bewaji and Florida Uzoaru (cherry-picked as case studies for this article) have gained massive following from the ideologies they espouse and its resonance with their ardent female fans and supporters. They represent a very contentious but widely unknown and unacknowledged psychoanalytic concept known as "Penis Envy."

•If you are conversant with Nkechi Bianze's regular anti-male banters, Linda Ikeji's subtle anti-male jabs, and the anti-male propositions of the Black Feminist warlord—Chimammanda Adichie, as well as other front liners of feminism such as Joy Isi Bewaji and toxic opinions of Florida Uzoaru, you will diagnose a constituent of "Penis envy" in their rhetorics.

WHAT IS PENIS ENVY?
•Penis envy is a theory in Freudian psychoanalysis that proposes that very young girls feel deprived and envious that they do not have a penis. These feelings later lead to a desire for access to a penis and normal heterosexual development.

•Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. He coined the phrase as part of his theory of psychosexual development. Within this theory, a child progresses through several stages of development, each of which contains a sexual conflict that the child must resolve to become a healthy adult.

•According to Freud, Penis envy is a stage of development experienced by female children and occurs when a girl first notices the differences in male and female anatomy and longs to have a penis of her own. He suggested that this moment is critical for sexual awareness and gender role differentiation in women.

•After a girl realizes she lacks a penis, she may be envious of boys. She may then begin to sexually desire her father and blame her mother for her apparent castration, longing for the death or disappearance of her mother. To cope with this conflict, a girl begins to mimic her mother, but later realizes she cannot have her father. To further cope with this fact, her sexual desire is displaced onto men generally, marking the beginning of heterosexuality . It is a psychological process.

•The conflict is usually exacerbated by dysfunctional relationships with their primary care givers such as parents and other authority figures.

•Penis envy may not necessarily be expressed as an envy of the penis—literally. It also manifests itself as envy and resentment for the social power accorded to the male gender role.

•Majority of girls overcome this stage of sexual conflict and move on to become normal heterosexual females desiring healthy relationships with the male gender and adjusting normally to societal roles of the female gender.

•However, a second group never quite recover from the envy or are unable to adjust to normalcy which predisposes them to embracing ideologies like Feminism, Misandry, Matriarchy and Female Supremacy. Their acceptance of such ideologies is actually a defense mechanism to help them cope with the psychological trauma of not having a penis or not accorded the societal validation given to the male gender by mainstream culture. In extreme cases, females have attempted to transform themselves to males through surgery. Transgenderism is often a futile attempt to resolve this conflict.

•Many adult females also hold a personal—often nonverbalized grudge against nature for restricting menstruation and menopause to only the female gender due to its attendant discomforts.

•At the deep core of a feminist psyche is an overarching desire to usurp male power and dominance. The frustration that follows from the inability to do so finds an outlet through incessant comparison with males, unnecessary rivalry with men, trying to fit into male roles, venturing into male-dominated occupations, sexual promiscuity, adventurism, male-bashing, man-shaming, craving political power and a blatant disdain for men.

•Feminism is often—only used as a tool by these band of female chauvinists and unrepentant "penis enviers" to give legitimacy to undesirable behavioral tendencies or social ineptitude.

Conclusion:
•To equate women seeking their liberation to being like men, is to admit to the subjugation of women in a system where men hold power.

•I think women of today have abandoned their own power by chasing equality to men. Instead of looking at all the wonderful things they have to offer, they are looking and craving what men have like it's better. Truth is, it is not. It's just different.

•Gender roles signify that we are uniquely created with certain strengths, and they naturally complement each other.

•Men and women don't have to envy each other for the things they lack because each gender has its own unique strengths and advantages. None is better or worse.

© Owai King Ibe (2018)