Stereotypes of Feminism

Date: November 27, 2024

I recently read We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstencraft. The similarities and subtle yet deep differences captivated me. 

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstencraft are both revolutionary novels that delve into the restricting misogyny that women face and the stereotypes of feminism that have been embedded in history. The texts separately allude to concepts such as the power of seduction and the necessity of a man’s role in a woman’s life, but have one concurring argument. Wollstonecraft and Adichie both suggest an underlying theme of the expectation of submission and weakness in women, especially in regards to men.

The excerpt from Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women explores the unquestioning submission that women yield to men in terms of keeping women weak and unknowledgeable. A Vindication of the Rights of Women is a deeply inspirational text that addresses the mistreatment of women in the 1800’s through Wollstonecraft’s perspective. In the excerpt, Wollstonecraft dives into a list of priorities that are jammed into the heads of young girls since infancy. The entire list is filled with superficial traits that they need to portray in order to obtain the protection of a man which was the primary goal that every woman strived for at that time. In the text, Wollstonecraft mentions the “outward obedience” that women need to display in order to attract a man. By using the word “obedience”, Wollstonecraft alludes to the way that women are expected to submit to their partners and purposefully let themself become powerless despite it meaning that they can be manipulated easily. Further on in the text, Wollstonecraft explains that by providing women with knowledge, there will be an end to the “blind obedience” that men expect from them. Since blind obedience is only desired by those in complete power, by staying authoritative and not providing women any freedom, “tyrants and sensualists” are proving that they only consider women as “slaves” and “playthings”. Wollstonecraft also refers to this cycle as “artificial weakness” from women which produces a “propensity [for men] to tyrannize”. In this quote, Wollstonecraft not only dives into the concept that in order to manipulate women into complete submission, men deny them the freedom and flexibility they would need to break the boundaries of “blind obedience”, but also that women deny themselves this power willingly in order to obtain a spouse. 

Similarly, the excerpt from Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists explores the idea that the concept of seduction is not powerful on its own but only becomes powerful by tapping into the power of a man, essentially inflating the ego of a man and reducing the woman into submission to him. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an eye-opening novel in which Adichie voices her opinions surrounding the cultural stigma around feminism in Nigeria and the stereotypes and hardships that women face through story-telling. In this excerpt, Adichie begins by referencing a common misconception that women can use seduction to get their way. However, this power of sexuality–bottom power– is not powerful in itself at all. Instead, women just have a “good route to tap into another person’s power”. Through this quote, Adichie is illustrating that seduction only appeals to the man’s authority by fueling his ego and reducing women into just sexual objects, therefore stripping women of their authority. A somewhat related story that Adichie explained was centered around a family with two young children in school. The students were in the same class and were both academically inclined, yet when studying, the girl sibling would be expected to pause her work and make food for the boy when he was hungry. From a young age, women have been taught that they should blindly submit to every request of a man, and through this learning, that their paths and ambitions mean less than a mans’. Because of this botched idea of the male gender having a birthright superiority, women are constantly left searching for ways they can assert dominance within a relationship. As this excerpt explains, although many people assume that using their sexuality to get favors from men is a source of power, it actually serves as another means to reduce the authority and power of women.

Overall, the novels We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstencraft both dive into the misogyny and stereotypes that women have faced in the past and continue to face every day. Despite being written in different settings and time periods, they both illustrate the expectation of submission in women as well as how women need to consciously deflate themselves in order to cater to a man.