We Should All Be Feminists
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Boring!! But then, I'm not the target audience, it's really more for people who don't already call themselves feminists. That this book was such a sensation makes me sad.
You might think that Adichie is just being smart about her audience here, but her recent transphobic comments show that no, her understanding of gender really is that shallow.
I could ding this book for a lot of individual things (the brief positive reference to the Nordic model, the pervasive heteronormativity [I think she says once that sexual experiences will "usually" be hetero as a hat tip to other possibilities], rejection of intersectionality between gender and race, etc etc), but on reflection it's not worthwhile. It was published years ago (though: not so many years ago that Adichie didn't have any opportunities to learn better, and obviously she hasn't learned much since), and this text is just observing the TED Talk norm of being reductive, faux-innovative, faux-revolutionary, self-obsessed, and cliche. It's not worth your time; skip it.