Prompt #1: Write a paragraph explaining what feminism means to you. Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Yes, I consider myself a feminist: I was around 17 years old when I was finally able to give a name and find a definition to feelings and thoughts I had about gender stereotypes and expectations on what meant to be a girl/woman navigating in this World. Adichie is correct when she says, in “We Should All Be Feminists”, that “there is a problem with gender and we must fix it” (10). It had always bothered me whenever my mother and aunts had to be the ones doing all the cooking and cleaning on Christmas Eve family dinner while my uncles and male cousins were able to sit down and chat, laughing for hours. Or on every Saturday morning, when she would get me out of bed early in the morning to clean the house, while my older brother was able to sleep in as he pleased. The examples are endless, I could keep going on and on. Finding out about Feminism was, at least, relieving. Now all the patterns and behaviors made sense. And finding more people out there feeling as resentful as I was felt like a breath of fresh air. Adichie (10) defines Feminism as the belief that man and women deserve social, political, and economic equality. And the change starts by changing the way children are socialized and with questioning the status quo and the gender expectations: and understanding Feminism is essential in order to achieve such changes.
