plagues

caused
a future
of fragments

50 million
faults

What I’m Reading, or: What I Just Finished Reading (a continuing series)

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2017)

A slim book length essay in epistle form where Adichie offers, at a friend’s request, advice on raising a child in the feminist tradition. Stark, intelligent advice on raising an empathic human being. It is feminist advice, first and foremost, but also good humane advice that the world sorely needs in greater doses.

In her third suggestion, on gender roles, Adichie serves up this incisive bon mot: “The knowledge of cooking does not come pre-installed in a vagina. Cooking is learned. Cooking—domestic work in general—is a life skill that both men and women should ideally have. It is also a skill that can elude both men and women.”

This book is full of excellent practical advice for dismantling patriarchal hegemony, and excellent advice for any human being who aspires to the heights in the art of being human. Ebook, 02/03/21.

“So teach Chizalum that biology is an interesting and fascinating subject, but she should never accept it as justification for any social norm. Because social norms are created by human beings, and there is no social norm that cannot be changed.”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie / Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions