Statement from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[Immunetypegoblin]

www.chimamanda.com/, published yesterday.

She is angry. One can understand why. One to watch I think.

I found that incredibly powerful. It reminded me of adrienne rich's 'women and honor'.
'When a woman tells the truth she is creating the possibility for more truth around her'.

I also really valued the way Adichie's piece spoke about her initial instincts and why she ignored them.

'My spirit had been slightly stalled, from the beginning, by her.'
This is incredibly relatable.
I feel like my life would be so different if I could act on this kind of feeling.

I also wonder whether political and activist circles attract a disproportionate amount of emotional vampires who try and test boundaries by pressuring you to behave in certain ways. Within feminism it feels like that is almost the norm just now.

Twitter isn't real life and nobody will bow to their laughable demands outside their carefully shielded bubble. Like everyone else, they'll have to actually roll with the punches. We do them no favours at all by letting them think that they deserve 'safe space'.

Except that TRA demands are being carried out on a huge scale, in schools, prisons, hospitals etc and now in Scottish law, that’s why we have to fight back. And this is getting people cancelled, bullied and destroying friendships and networks in publishing. I totally agree it does no one any favours but it is happening.

@BrownTableMat

Wow. It’s so beautifully written, and so angry. I’ve never read her books but that makes me want to start.

Oh wow, you are in for a treat. She is a magnificent writer. A modern classic. Genuinely one of the best prose stylists alive in the world today. So intelligent and precise and, pertinently, so emotionally intelligent, which she accuses her attacker of not being. She is a fiercely independent critical thinker. (I don't know her or work for her publisher. I just admire her work and have for years.)

I love Chimamanda and am horrified that one of the books I bought the other day was written by one of these people (the one who referenced Chimamanda on the book jacket). I don't think I can stomach having it in my house now. I'm trying to find out who the other author is.

I am not GC and want trans people to be safe and respected (accepting I may have my head bitten off here) but I agree with everything Chimamanda has said about the subject. It is disturbing that simply questioning how we categorise according to sex/gender is taken to be a hate act.

Chimamanda is a wonderful writer and thinker.

@SirSamuelVimes

Great article. She's furious, and rightly so!

I think this section:

And in a deluded way, you will convince yourself that your hypocritical, self-regarding, compassion-free behavior is in fact principled feminism. It isn’t. You will wrap your mediocre malice in the false gauziness of ideological purity. But it’s still malice. You will tell yourself that being able to parrot the latest American Feminist orthodoxy justifies your hacking at the spirit of a person who had shown you only kindness. You can call your opportunism by any name, but it doesn’t make it any less of the ugly opportunism that it is.

Could be applied to the ungrateful Potter actors word for word, the little turds.

When I was reading Parts 1 & 2, I was thinking that JKR could probably write a similar account about Emma Watson.

It's a magnificent piece of writing. Part 3 just says it all really. What an amazing and brave women.

Is it well known who the young writer is? I'm not on Twitter, so wasn't aware of this attack on Chimamanda. I'd like to avoid putting money in their pocket, whoever they are.

BrimfulOfBaba

I am not GC and want trans people to be safe and respected (accepting I may have my head bitten off here) but I agree with everything Chimamanda has said about the subject. It is disturbing that simply questioning how we categorise according to sex/gender is taken to be a hate act.

I fear you might by GC actually. That's basically my position too - and JKR's incidentally - but I'm apparently a hateful bigot for saying that gender identity does not automatically take precedence over biological sex.

Thanks for posting OP. I've been seeing this tweet shared and wondered what it all stemmed from but reading the essay it makes sense now.

I am not GC and want trans people to be safe and respected (accepting I may have my head bitten off here) but I agree with everything Chimamanda has said about the subject. It is disturbing that simply questioning how we categorise according to sex/gender is taken to be a hate act.

GC stands for gender critical, ie critical of the system of gender which enforces sex stereotypes and oppresses women. It doesn't mean "trans critical". Many trans people don't support the current mainstream trans rights orthodoxy but they don't get such a media platform. I've not come across a person posting here in good faith who doesn't want trans people to be safe and respected. It helps to view the position as a form of atheism. Then you understand that disagreeing with an ideology doesn't equal wishing harm to those who agree.

I read Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun. Both brilliant.

It's been retreated by David Baddiel.

Angels jostling to out-angel each other.

Beautifully put.

That tweet is horrible! Inciting violence while in the SAME TWEET pretending to be all gentle and lovely! That’s even worse somehow.

I think Chimamanda has acted with generosity and class towards the younger writer for longer than many would. I understand why she had to finally take a stand against their almost sociopathic opportunism and hypocrisy. Grief can fill you up so you no longer have any space to hold on to another person's bullshit.

Thanks for posting OP. I've been seeing this tweet shared and wondered what it all stemmed from but reading the essay it makes sense now.

It does.

@OvaHere

Thanks for posting OP. I've been seeing this tweet shared and wondered what it all stemmed from but reading the essay it makes sense now.

Oh god, that tweet. The casual encouragement of others to 'pick up machetes', but this perfectly fucking serene soul will be 'in my garden with the butterflies'.

That's this movement in a nutshell for me. Rank hypocrisy and utter, wilful lack of self-awareness. And I agree wholeheartedly with the brilliant CNA, it IS obscene.

That tweet is horrible! Inciting violence while in the SAME TWEET pretending to be all gentle and lovely! That’s even worse somehow.

Not uncommon with trans activist Twitter IME where many anime avatar types are posting cutesy emojis, flowers and baby animals, and complaining about how "exhausting" everything is, interspersed with wishes that women would be raped and killed in graphic ways.

Thanks. It says this on their Wiki:

In 2019, Freshwater was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction — the first time a non-binary transgender author has been nominated for the prize. Kate Williams, the chair of the judges, called it a "historic moment". Williams said that the panel did not know Emezi was non-binary when the book was chosen, but she said Emezi was happy to be nominated.[19] Non-binary commentator Vic Parsons wrote that the nomination raised uncomfortable questions, asking: "would a non-binary author who was assigned male at birth have been longlisted? I highly doubt it."[20] After the nomination, it was announced that the Women's Prize Trust was working on new guidelines for transgender, non-binary, and genderfluid authors.]

And also they have written:

Pet, released on 10 September 2019, is about a transgender teenager named Jam living in a world where adults refuse to acknowledge the existence of monsters.[22]

Thank you for linking to this it is devastating to read. I will be sharing it far and wide. She is a writer whose books have profoundly changed how I see the world. If you have not read her work yet I can highly recommend the audiobooks of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ and ‘Americanah’ which is beautifully read by Adjoah Andoh.

Thanks @PaleGreenGhost and @InvisibleDragon. I've got some learning to do.

That tweet is horrific. I bought her book the other day not realising, the first chapter is genuinely intriguing. But I cannot in good faith read it now.

Does anyone know who the other author mentioned is? I read a lot of books by Nigerian authors, mainly because of my love of Chimamanda's work. I don't want to support either of these authors.

Ereshkigalangcleg I was aware of the tendency, but what blows my mind about that tweet is that someone could write it in all seriousness - it's like an overwritten Bond villain. "I do hope my friends with machetes don't take exception to you Mr Bond: I of course am far too lovely to sully my hands with such matters." How can anyone pretend it's not plain old illegal incitement to murder?

In any other context, with any other target, it would obviously be seen as a crime.

@MrsBunHat

Ereshkigalangcleg I was aware of the tendency, but what blows my mind about that tweet is that someone could write it in all seriousness - it's like an overwritten Bond villain. "I do hope my friends with machetes don't take exception to you Mr Bond: I of course am far too lovely to sully my hands with such matters." How can anyone pretend it's not plain old illegal incitement to murder?

In any other context, with any other target, it would obviously be seen as a crime.

Yes!! The Bond villain silkily stroking his purring cat while casually ordering the destruction of the civilised world.

I loved Half a Yellow Sun and found it very interesting historically as well as I am old enough to have spent half my childhood being told to eat all my food on my plate because of Biafra starving children.

Just posting a couple of related twitter threads, including reference to that disgraceful tweet.

twitter.com/womenreadwomen/status/1405078690854182914?s=21

Associated twitter thread

twitter.com/yatakalam/status/1405080067110232065?s=21