On my bookshelf: "We Should All Be Feminists"

"We have evolved .But our ideas of gender have not evolved very much."-
this line brings out the essence of Chimananda's book " We Should All Be Feminists". It is adapted from her much viewed  TEDx talk with the same name.

 I would highly recommend this short ebook to all, especially to young people and to those interested in gender studies. It would also be a rather useful read for teen girls because  it's the perfect intro to those who are just starting to understand gender issues.

Chimananda writes gently but effectively and she draws on  experiences from her homeland Nigeria and from USA- her own and her friends'. She speaks of the time when she wasn't made a class monitor just because she was a girl, even though she met the criterion by scoring the highest . It was something that shook her nine year old self to the very core.

Chimananda speaks of how a woman is often criticized for the same attributes that a man is praised for.For example, a woman CEO is often spoken ill of if she's assertive, whereas a man CEO is likely to be admired for the very same trait.

For the discrimination against women, rather than attacking men, she talks about culture and mindsets, which I think is a good approach.She says that the culture must be inclusive and must evolve according to the needs of the time where physical strength is no longer important and therefore men's dominance no longer makes sense.

Some of my favourite lines from the book:

"We spend too much time telling girls that they cannot be angry or aggressive or tough,which is bad enough,but then we turn around and either praise or excuse men for the same reasons."

"We define masculinity in a very narrow way.Masculinity is a hard,small cage, and we put boys inside this cage."

"The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are."

 

Chimamanda's tone in this book is conversational and not at all pedantic, which makes it a great read!Looking forward  to reading more of her work!

This instead of that......

As moms, we wear many hats.One is that of a  hunter-gatherer, always on the look out for wholesome food for the fam.


Here I share some substitutions (suggestions based on products available in  Singapore supermarkets) that I have come up with while navigating the aisles:

Chocolate Spreads 

 

Commercial chocolate spreads  are fingerlickingly delicious  but they are sugar bombs !

This

 

 

Instead of 

 You can substitute chocolate spreads such as "Nutella" with the likes of Coco2 from Pure Harvest which harnesses the benefits of  coconut and cocoa and is delectable. I tried it and my kids gave two  thumbs up to the taste.I am not endorsing any particular brand here and there are many more healthy chocolate spreads other than the ones that you see here  .You can find them in Mustafa or in Cold Storage and  also at Fairprice .

 

Cheese 

 

Cheese is another favourite of the little people in our lives ! So we might as well give them the best .....

 

This

When selecting cheeses, just go for natural cheeses which are the real stuff and full of the goodness of dairy ! 

 

 

 

 

  Instead of that 

Processed cheese doesn't have much food value as it contains a lot of fillers.In fact you'd be  surprised to know that the final product contains very little  cheese!

 Soup stocks 

 

 For soup stocks, it's a great idea to choose one which has less salt and  made from free range chicken.My kids like  noodle soups when they get tired of rice and so I prefer a wholesome broth base instead of a chemical concoction full of MSG and artificial flavours. A tad expensive but worth it.....

More to come as my exploration continues........and very keen to hear about the smart substitutions that you have made!