Because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye … I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
Gender is not an easy conversation to have. It makes people uncomfortable, sometimes even irritable. Both men and women are resistant to talk about gender or are quick to dismiss the problems of gender. Because thinking of changing the status quo is always uncomfortable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Discussing gender issues often leads to discomfort and resistance from people.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's quote highlights the difficulties associated with discussing gender topics, revealing a common discomfort and irritability that people feel when confronted with the need to address and challenge the existing gender norms. It suggests that both men and women often suppress or dismiss discussions about gender disparities, as contemplating change can be unsettling and disruptive to the status quo.
Themes
GenderConversationStatus QuoDiscomfortChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about gender equality, this quote can highlight the challenges of initiating discussions.
More from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
All quotes →The real tragedy of our postcolonial world is not that the majority of people had no say in whether or not they wanted this new world; rather, it is that the majority have not been given the tools to negotiate this new world.
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If I had not grown up in Nigeria- and if all I knew of Africa were of popular images- I too would think that africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals and incomprehensible people fighting sensless wars, dying of poverty and aids- unable to speak for themselves and waiting to be saved by a kind white foreigner.
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Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
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You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.
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Non-fiction, and in particular the literary memoir, the stylised recollection of personal experience, is often as much about character and story and emotion as fiction is.
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