Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Gender Analysis

“I am angry. Gender as it functions today is a grave injustice.” Said the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie during her Ted talk in 2013. She states that anger is important because it has a history of bringing positive change. She then said that even though she is angry she still has hope because she believes that people have the to ability to remake themselves for the better (Adichie 2013:online). Positive change is exactly what our society needs. People should remake themselves into kind, open-minded and accepting beings that does not… Adichie’s quote might make you wonder how is gender an injustice? How does it function? And why should this change? This essay will address this.

First we should look at what the term ‘gender’ entails.

These ideologies of gender are forced onto us from the moment we come from our mother’s womb; we are wrapped in a blanket that collarets with our sex. Boys are told to play with cars and girls should play with dolls. Adichie argues that the way boys are raised is unfair; “We define masculinity in a very narrow way. Masculinity becomes this hard small cage and we put boys inside the cage.” (Adichie 2014: 26). Boys are taught to be strong to never show fear, be weak or vulnerable and to prove their masculinity in contrast to women. This is not fair, men have the right to express these emotions just as women do. One should not be forced into living out a prescribed gender identity; it should be the individual’s choice. Gender is a performance

This analysis will not only be focusing on the sexist portrayal of women in the media, but also the representation of men and the stereotype of masculinity. Analyzing the representation of the women and men’s gender identities and what implications these stereotypes have on our social stance in society.

The frequent objectification and eroticization of females in the media, results into low self-esteem issues and confusion among women about self worth.

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In these scenes portrayed in the ad the interaction between the women and men are more like an ownership rather than a partnership; like a master and sex-slave relationship. Looking away in some scenes, the men don’t seem very interested or invested in the women (figure 1 and 5). The women are portrayed as trophies to proof the men’s success. When the men are paying attention to the women it is in a sexual objectifying way