Since the self-titled album, Beyoncé has become more vocal in her music both as a feminist and an activist - a new perspective most strongly seen in her recent release, Lemonade.Īdichie’s last book, Americanah, won the National Book Critic award for fiction in 2013, and has been optioned by actress Lupita Nyong’o. I think men are lovely, but I don’t think that women should relate everything they do to men: did he hurt me, do I forgive him, did he put a ring on my finger?” she says. “Still, her type of feminism is not mine, as it is the kind that, at the same time, gives quite a lot of space to the necessity of men. Though she makes sure to acknowledge that she admires Beyoncé greatly, and thinks she is a celebrity of the first order that provided a platform for feminism that is hard to match, she recognizes the difference between their feminism. I thought: I am a writer and I have been for some time and I refuse to perform in this charade that is now apparently expected of me: ‘Thanks to Beyoncé, my life will never be the same again.’ That’s why it didn’t speak about it much.’” Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest in hair, beauty, style and celebrity news. Her resentment came from how people felt she should be grateful for the plug. I felt such a resentment,” Adichie told the Dutch, laughing at that last line. Literally every major newspaper in the world wanted to speak with me about Beyoncé. “I was shocked about how many requests for an interview I received when that song was released. That quote would be a lot harder to incorporate into a Beyoncé song, but perhaps Beyoncé will still try.Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie has spoken little about the impact of having Beyoncé use a sample of her “We should all be feminists” TED Talk in the singer’s 2013 self-titled album.īut when she finally opened up about it to a Dutch paper this week, Adichie explained that the experience was less than flawless. We women should spend about 20 percent of our time on men, because it’s fun, but otherwise we should also be talking about our own stuff. Put a group of men together and they will not talk about women at all, they will just talk about their own stuff. Put a group of women together and the conversation will eventually be about men. I think men are lovely, but I don’t think that women should relate everything they do to men: did he hurt me, do I forgive him, did he put a ring on my finger? We women are so conditioned to relate everything to men. Still, her type of feminism is not mine, as it is the kind that, at the same time, gives quite a lot of space to the necessity of men. I am very taken with that.” Adichie continues: Yet the question she gets the most during interviews is about Beyonce, who sampled from one of Adichies TED talks in the song Flawless, released three. “She portrays a woman who is in charge of her own destiny, who does her own thing, and she has girl power. “Her style is not my style, but I do find it interesting that she takes a stand in political and social issues, since a few years,” Adichie said. Beyoncé had of course asked permission to quote Adichie, and, as Adichie points out, “With this song she has reached many people who would otherwise probably never have heard the word feminism, let alone gone out and buy my essay.” But the Americanah author doesn’t entirely agree with Beyoncé’s politics, even as she is enthusiastic about her political engagement. Though, as the author points out in a new interview with Dutch paper De Volkskrant, she was already pretty famous, and bristled at the implication that she should be publicly thankful to the musician. When Beyoncé quoted Chimananda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk “We Should All Be Feminists” in “Flawless,” Adichie and her work suddenly became the focus of massive international attention. Photo: Jim Spellman/WireImage/Getty Images
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