Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie interview with Zoe Williams

Yes it’s a weird interview isn’t it. Did she force the conversation on to trans issues just so she could shoehorn in her own opinion on the matter?

'I struggle with the arrogance of interviewing someone of CNA's stature and feeling you have to report what you said and your opinions as much as what she said.'

Absolutely. And cheapening her by describing her as 'a troublemaker' FFS. So childish

Well done to CNA for not backing down, and trying valiantly to keep women at the heart of the conversation

I suggest that he would look different if he were living as a woman.

“But that’s the thing,” she says. “You can look however you want now and say you’re a woman.” And, she adds, anyone who might take issue with this is “outdated” and needs “to have the young people educate [them]”. I suspect she’s taking an argument – that trans people don’t want to be policed for how they dress and what stage of transition they’re at – and reducing it to the absurd.

There’s that phrase again “living as a woman” that nobody seems to be able to define.

And let’s face it the current trans style is for a 6ft 2 burley, bearded bloke to put on some nail polish and a flouncy summer dress and that’s it for transitioning. If that is what ZW considers “reducing it to the absurd” then she’s the outdated one in this conversation.

I struggle with the arrogance of interviewing someone of CNA's stature and feeling you have to report what you said and your opinions as much as what she said.

I grew up in a town with a large fundamentalist Christian community (of the evolution doesn't exist and neither did dinosaurs variety), and arguing with trans activists feels like arguing with them.

I never was impressed by Zoe Williams and I'm less impressed now. She's startlingly naive and ill-informed.

Chimamanda Nzogi Adichie is totally the opposite. Must put her books I've not so far read on my Christmas list.

The Reith lectures start on BBC radio 4 on Wednesday.

Oh absolutely!

Although I suspect Zoe was well taught. She’s just regressed to the social media style of argument. And that flies a the guardian these days.

I think better of Zoe Williams for interviewing her. But some very odd things in the introduction. A troublemaker? Adichie keeps making the point that she's not trying to make trouble at all and that if speaking about the rights and choices of women causes trouble she is distressed by that. But she can't not do it.

What strikes me even further is that they had this discussion verbally, presumably with it being recorded so Williams could transcribe later. Its not a case of just half listening and arguing in the heat of the moment.
She actually wrote down Adichie's exact words on how women's views are valid and facts exist and then followed it up with "I'm not having that"
This entire thing is quite fascinating from a psychological perspective. It's clear Williams wasn't hearing a word at all.

i do think this is what you get when lots of people have done not very good social science degree that taught them just enough to spectacularly miss the point while thinking they’re really clever.

Ooh. I learned that I can say ‘no you can’t generalise to all because I found one case’. No need to look any deeper! Gotcha.

It’s more than that @TheGreatATuin.

She’s not having a different opinion and she’ll invent a fairly silly straw man position so she can reject it because that’s not her own view.

But so many people are so poor at critical thinking, they go with the surface ‘ah. She got her. It isn’t everyone, so the whole argument is wrong!’ and fail to think ‘but that was never the argument about objectivity anyway’.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Queen.

I have so much respect for Adichie and gain more every time I hear something. She's sharp, compassionate and willing to stand her ground, while not trying to shut down the other person from expressing their views.
Much like JKR, she is just an amazing role model for girls.
This interview is quite fascinating as Zoe Williams has very much come down on the TRA side of things.
I think the seminal point for me is when they are debating trans issues and Adichie says, "Not if you consider women’s views to be valid. This is what baffles me. Are there no such things as objective truth and facts?"
and Williams just writes "I'm not having that" and then adds her response.
The entire lecture is about respecting and allowing different voices and opinions.
That's what the Adichies of the world are asking for and the Williamses are just "I'm not having that"
Sums up the TRA side doesn't it?

“Someone’s useful idiot” sums up Zoe Williams.

Wonder how Nicola 'feminist to her fingertips ' Sturgeon thinks of her now - she interviewed Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Edinburgh book festival a few years ago and I think she said she was an inspiration.

All that expensive education hasn’t helped Zoe with building a decent argument.

I’m not having that. “You couldn’t objectively say, ‘All women are threatened by trans women.’ I’m also a woman. That doesn’t reflect my experience.”

Talk about completely distorting an argument to the point of absurdity and then saying ‘but that’s not how I feel so it can’t be true’. People simply wouldn’t be objectively claiming that all women are threatened by trans women. 🙄

Yes, I agree heartening that she hasn't backed down.