Beyoncé’s song ***flawless has amazing lyrics spoken by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer, to show how much we are put into our roles as girls and women, starting at a very young age…
We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.
We say to girls:
“You can have ambition, but not too much.
You should aim to be successful,
but not too successful,
otherwise, you will threaten the man.”Because I am female,
I am expected to aspire to marriage.
I am expected to make my life choices,
always keeping in mind that
marriage is the most important.
Now marriage can be a source of
joy and love and mutual support.
But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage,
and we don’t teach boys the same?
We raise girls to each other as competitors.
Not for jobs or for accomplishments,
which I think can be a good thing.
But for the attention of men.
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings
in the way that boys are.
Feminist: the person who believes in the social,
political, and economic equality of the sexes.
I love these lyrics, because Chimamanda mentions how important it is to raise both sexes with the same expectations. And she encourages girls not to see other women as their competitors and to go for what they want. Life is not all about men and getting married, there’s so much more to it! I believe that the world is our playground and we can all play the games that we want.
I also like her definition of a feminist. A feminist is not someone who believes women are better or more important than men. She just says that a feminist believes that both sexes are equally valuable in our society.
I hope this inspires you not to limit yourself to how the society might define us, but help create today’s independent and self-confident woman!
What are your thoughts?
Have a happy day!
Martina <3
