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Video: Education and the Danger of the Single Story

Ed. note: This post is part of the second round of the Feministing “So You Think You Can Blog” contributor contest (background here). Stay tuned all week as our six finalists take turns turns covering the blog and giving us a sense of their personal contributor style. The winner of the contest and newest member of the Feministing team will be announced next week!

In the video below, novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Note: A transcript of this talk is available at the Ted video page.

Not only is Chimamanda Adichie hilarious, she makes a hugely important point about how we look at the narratives of non-Western people. How many times have you heard about someone doing volunteer work in “Africa” or how someone speaks “Chinese?” It’s easy to view people from the Global South as one monolithic group of “poor people,” or “people who need our help,” and yet the reality is vastly more nuanced, dynamic, and beautiful.

CeCe McDonald vs. Pussy Riot: Political Imprisonment and Perspective

Ed. note: This post is part of the second round of the Feministing “So You Think You Can Blog” contributor contest (background here). Stay tuned all week as our six finalists take turns turns covering the blog and giving us a sense of their personal contributor style. The winner of the contest and newest member of the Feministing team will be announced next week!

A LexisNexis search of major, English-language, publications for the term “CeCe McDonald” yields one search result. It’s an opinion piece, published in the Sydney Morning Herald from late August. Unfortunately, the article wasn’t even about McDonald. It was about Pussy Riot.

I would venture a guess that more articles are published about ...

Ed. note: This post is part of the second round of the Feministing “So You Think You Can Blog” contributor contest (background here). Stay tuned all week as our six finalists take turns turns covering ...

Rest in Peace, Arlen Specter: Speaking Ill of the Dead

Ed. note: This post is part of the second round of the Feministing “So You Think You Can Blog” contributor contest (background here). Stay tuned all week as our six finalists take turns turns covering the blog and giving us a sense of their personal contributor style. The winner of the contest and newest member of the Feministing team will be announced next week!

As a Philly girl living in New York, I get most of my hometown news through the wonders of social media. When the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, I found out via jubilant Facebook status updates. My first inklings of the Penn State molestation scandal came courtesy of defiant tweets and comment ...

Ed. note: This post is part of the second round of the Feministing “So You Think You Can Blog” contributor contest (background here). Stay tuned all week as our six finalists take turns turns covering ...

How to Be a Woman, Liz Lemon, and the repackaging of Choose My Choice Feminism

A SYTYCB entry

As a rule, I don’t write in books. Maybe it’s because of my deep reverence for my library, maybe it’s because I’m constantly lending out books to friends, boyfriends, and strangers, and would rather not distract them with my notations. Maybe it’s out of spite towards one particularly annoying high school English teacher who would grade us on our marginalia. Whatever the reason, I rarely ever make any mark except the occasional bracket or underline. Until I read Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman. I hate notated my way through that book with surprising enthusiasm. The margins of my copy are filled with scribbled phrases ranging from “shaming” to “citation needed” to “who the fuck asked ...

A SYTYCB entry

As a rule, I don’t write in books. Maybe it’s because of my deep reverence for my library, maybe it’s because I’m constantly lending out books to friends, boyfriends, and strangers, and would rather ...

I Look Pregnant and I Don’t Care

A SYTYCB entry

A few years ago, I was having lunch with my younger sister. She asked me, “what’s the most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to a girl?” My adolescent summers spent poring over Seventeen had finally paid off and I was able rattle off several plausible scenarios, all involving crushes, periods, and static cling.

It turns out, my sister was referring to someone mistakenly believing she was pregnant. Apparently, this had happened to her while she was waiting in line for a bus, looking lovingly at her stomach. Prior to this discussion, I didn’t think that that sort of thing happened in real life. I mean, doesn’t that only happen in romantic comedies, most likely starring Hugh ...

A SYTYCB entry

A few years ago, I was having lunch with my younger sister. She asked me, “what’s the most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to a girl?” My adolescent summers spent poring over Seventeen ...