Book Reviews of ANTHEM and We Should All Be Feminists

I just had the most awesome day. Productive, fun, interesting, all the best stuff. The coolest of it was getting to read BOTH of these books by influential women in one morning, because they are so short and readable. They both made me think and challenged me, but I preferred by far the manuscript from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Reviews below!

ANTHEM: 3/5

I liked it, but it felt really contrived. Like the author wanted to write an essay and accidentally wrote a novella instead. The main thesis is that our current culture worships the idea of the collective - "we" care more about the "we" than the "me," at least intellectually. So we praise selflessness and discourage selfishness. The author, Ayn Rand, believes that denying oneself is not only unintelligent, but harmful. If we all were to focus too heavily on that idea, Rand's story argues, then we would lose the major and rapid gains that humanity has achieved through the minds of outcasts and nobodies. Inventions would be cast aside because they disrupt the status quo. Thoughts of preference for individuals we care most about would be scorned because they are unfair. 

I think there's a logical fallacy here, though. Just because we believe that selflessness is a virtue does not necessarily imply we think you should always deny yourself. For instance: I can both enjoy the food I eat and use the energy for others. Heck, I can use the energy for myself AND others. It's a mistake to say that my eating is only for others, and it's a mistake to say that it's only for me. Anthem was singing a song in a world with only one scale. But in the real world, we have major and minor scales, and scales from other cultures that don't even sound pleasant to our earholes. We can choose which song to play based on the needs of the environment we're in - it doesn't always have to be in the white keys surrounding middle C. 

WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS: 5/5. It'd be hard to find logical fallacies in this manuscript of a TED-Talk. I've been waiting to read something by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for a while now, and I'm so glad to have finally got my hands on one (Thank you, sis!). She was magnificent in her talk. She's succinct, persuasive, and all around said what needed to be said. She comes from Nigeria, which seems to have a decidedly more stereotypical gender issue than in America. That's not to say that the issue in America is LESS, just that it has progressed to the stage of imaginary completion. We THINK we've finished with sexism in the workplace and in our daily lives, but we're far from it. The manuscript reinvigorated the thing in me that wants to stand up for my wife's ability to outshine stereotypes - and to inhabit the norms that she wants to keep. In general, I love when labels are shaken. 

Adichie reminded her audience that men are held to a ridiculous set of "ideals" as well - hard, driven, emotionless (except for anger), and above all, "strong." Strength is narrowly defined as the ability to dominate the arena we are in. Women, on the other hand, are not supposed to be strong - manly - in most cases. We expect softness and gentle kindness, when often their circumstances may be better served through toughness and the ability to fight. When they find themselves in such situations, they may have to fight against their own culturally ingrained understandings of gender just to live the best way. It would be best for all of us to do away with these silly notions of what it means to be male and female and instead side with the basic idea of BEING male or female, without anything attached to the role. I hope my girls grow up seeing strong, honest, capable women in their life. I'm glad to know they will, because they have a momma who is all of these things and FIVE aunts, a Nana and a Ma'am who will show them how and have already begun creating that legacy. I hope I get to be the kind of dad who shows them that a man can and often should put a woman's needs before his own. I can't wait to see them grow up! For my wife, my daughters, my sisters, my wife's sisters, and just for myself, I'll gladly be a feminist who seeks equality where it does not exist.