We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi TED Talk Extract

[pedrobessa]

I think people laughed when they shouldn't

[atimannmary]

Could you correct the spelling of her name....its Ngozi not Gnozi😚

[fefifofob]

I need a woman to let me know how worthless I am for the rest of my life.

[tomi.tshotit]

I know this post is old but………..

although some of what you are saying is right, there are many gaps in your argument.

It seems like you’re equating a woman getting her drink spiked to a man “having” to buy a woman a drink at a bar. Buying a woman a drink at a bar is YOUR CHOICE and you’re not buying it just to be nice or just to be seen as a kind person in society. Most men will buy a woman a drink in hopes that she’ll fuck him. So saying that women don’t have to worry about buying drinks is very irrelevant.

“Women don’t have to worry if they’ll be mocked if they cry” that is true, however, when a man cries, majority of the time it’s not the women telling him to “be a man”. And it’s not the women that mock him. That doesn’t go to say that women don’t mock men when they cry, it’s just not women that have perpetuated the idea that “men don’t cry”. It’s men themselves.

“Women often talk about how hard it is to be a mother……”

Men don’t complain about how hard it is to be a father because most of the time they’re not the ones that spend majority of their time with their children (not saying that that’s a bad thing). Being a mother is hard, not only physically but mentally, the side effects that child birth has and the toll it takes on a mother’s body is hard.
“Men don’t complain about how hard it is to be a father” but there are parents that point out that being a parent is hard.
And I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume you’re a man………. You realize you are a man complaining about how hard it is to be a man. Expressing how you feel burdens and oppression. Are you doing this because you like to whine?


“Because women are as likely to have the characteristics needed for leading as children are” although I believe men are more fit for leadership roles, this whole segment doesn’t really make much sense to me.

Children are shorter than everyone. And you don’t need to be tall to be a leader. You don’t need to have a deep voice to lead either.
I don’t see how body hair is relevant to leadership.
I also don’t see how eye size or shape is relevant to being a leader.

“Given this, it’s utterly disgusting to say that men are privileged”
The privileges that women have do outweigh the privileges that men have, but there are aspects of disadvantages that women experience or fear, that are also utterly disgusting.

Women in the modern western society are in fact extremely privileged, but I don’t understand your statement about women repaying selflessness with saying they are oppressed.
How do you suggest women repay men?

If you look at continents like Africa, (where the speaker is from). Women and GIRLS are in fact very oppressed. Still no property rights, still no right to vote, still no right to drive, their value still up to the men of their countries. Girls as young as 7 and 8 given up for marriage. Women killed for their choice of dressing and appearance. (With no systems put in place for rapist and men who murder on the basis of sex and gender)

“She will stop loving you”
Depends on the woman you’ve gotten involved with, that didn’t actually love you but loved what you had.

As you said, it’s human nature. So can I say this to a woman: if you stop cooking for him, if you stop cleaning, if you stop taking care of children, if you stop having sec with him, he will stop loving you.
WELL NO SHIT. of course he’ll stop loving you.

Can I say that the moment you stop giving him more things to fulfil his own selfishness, he’ll stop loving you?
Does that sound right?

If you have a wife or a girlfriend, the things you desired from her or from a potential partner, are they for selfish reasons?


“It’s true for all human beings all over the world in every country”

This is just utterly incorrect in every way. I wonder if those 13 year old girls forced to get married care about their 60 year old husbands bank account 🤔

Not just one gender is oppressed.

You can say that men have burdens or that they lack privilege, but if you say that men are oppressed, it is the system put in place by men that would be oppressing them.
Whereas if women say they are oppressed, in certain situations, the oppression is done by men.

You can’t say that women are not oppressed because you wouldn’t look women and girls in the Middle East and Africa in the eyes and tell them they are not oppressed. The same way you won’t look men in the eye (the men you’re defending that carry a burden) and also tell them their not oppressed.