The book I read for the reading without walls challenge was We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This very short non-fiction book actually originated as a TEDxEuston Talk, a conference that encourages speakers to challenge and inspire Africans and friends of Africa. This book actually met two of the three challenges for me. I don’t normally read books in this format (short and speech-like), and I also don’t generally read books from an African perspective, particularly on this topic. I picked this challenge because I was hoping it might stretch my understanding of a topic that I am passionate about: equality of gender. However, I have really only been exposed to a white and American perspective on this topic.
Ngozi Adichie inspires her audience to think about the subtleties of gender inequality in our culture. Even though her book is short, it is jam-packed with real-life examples of how women are treated differently than men. She also spends her time digging into our thought process about gender and what we can do with a stereotype that seems so loaded: feminism. By the end of the book, she will have you thinking about this term in a brand new way. I gained incredible insight from this book. The most important insight is probably the reminder that other countries and cultures see gender equality differently than we do in the United States. However, it also gave me insight into how much is really quite similar to the struggles of women’s rights and treatment in the United States. It seems that all cultures are currently struggling to bridge the divide between an age-old treatment of women and a new acceptance of women as equal to men. Ngozi Adichie knocked me off of my feet with one very simple perspective, and that is how men and women dress in the workplace. “The sad truth of the matter is that when it comes to appearance, we start off with men as the standard, as the norm. Many of us think that the less feminine a woman appears, the more likely she is to be taken seriously. A man going to a business meeting doesn't wonder about being taken seriously based on what he is wearing—but a woman does.” She so eloquently brought to light something that I have struggled to explain or even acknowledge in my life as a woman. To “dress up” in a powerful way, the way to control a room or others around you, is to dress more like a man. Her enlightening book is filled with these stories from and about women. However, her book is written for all people, regardless of gender. In fact, she cites her brother as one of the strongest feminists she knows. I believe this book and TedxEuston Talk will be something to talk about for generations to come. Post by Ms. Thompson, DHS 10th Grade ELA Teacher
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AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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November 2022
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