We Should All Be Feminists

Yesterday I read We Should All Be Feminists, a short and sweet essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie based on her wonderful Ted talk. Like everything she produces it was beautiful, accessible and succinct, and I'll be gifting it to my 15 year old cousin this Christmas alongside some of my less enlightened male - and female -friends. It summarises perfectly why feminism is a cause that's still both relevant and necessary and one that we must all rally around, whilst rubbishing many of the myths and "but what about...?"s that surround the word and the movement. Do read it yourselves, it's very short, but I thought I'd quote my favourite page:

"Some people ask, 'Why the word feminist? Why not just say you are a believer in human rights, or something like that?' Because that would be dishonest. Feminism is, of course, part of human rights in general - but to choose to use the vague expression human rights is to deny the specific and particular problem of gender. It would be a way of pretending that it was not women who have, for centuries, been excluded. It woudl be a way of denying that the problem of gender targets women. That the problem was not about being human, but specifically about being a female human. For centuries, the world divided human beings into groups and then proceeded to exclude and oppress one group. It is only fair that the solution to the problem should acknowledge that."