OWN YOUR WICKEDNESS

This is my last take on this Chimamanda issue.

1. A person who abhors feminism but thinks that Chimamanda is the only feminist who practices true feminism based on a comment she made during an interview is an idiot.

2. Any feminists that want to denounce Chimamanda as a feminist based on that same statement are simply silly.

Chimamanda is a feminist. There is no debate about that. She shares the same ideology with us, but she just happens to go about it in a different way. And so, if she thinks that some women are unkind and use feminism to mask it, then that is her opinion.

I have been called mean and nasty many times on these streets when I stood my ground as a feminist.

Remember when I called out Bobrisky, and Tonto came to act like an idiot and I told her to remember what happened with her ex husband? I was called nasty. One woman legit said "I hate her type of feminism".

During the End SARS protests, I was called yet unprintable names by men, fellow women and gender equality activists because I said and stood by my stance that women do not owe men any form of support or solidarity.

On these streets, I have dragged women and people's mothers in ways that were so crude, so raw that people would swear that I wasn't truly a feminist.

Now, If it happens that these behaviours are the behaviours that Chimamanda was referring to when she spoke about unkindness, then so be it. I accept that I have been unkind, mean, nasty and outright wicked.

Yes, I agree that it is unkind:

- To remind a woman of a past painful gender violence related experience. But it is justifiable if that woman was acting like a numbskull and was shitting on the same ideology that fought for her ass;

- To see a group of people facing oppression and injustice, and remain indifferent. But it is justifiable if that same group of people have done nothing but oppress you and deny you justice for centuries;

- To insult people's mothers and talk down on a woman: slutshame her, hiss at her stories of abuse, rape and murder, and remain unbothered by whatever gender related affliction that she might be going through. But that unkindness is justifiable if those people and those women are known for constantly coming at you or other women with their nasty ass misogyny.

I indulge in unkind behaviours all the time, and guess what? I do them with my full chest.

Evil is objective. But circumstances will determine if that evil is justifiable or not.

When you kill someone in self defence, it is justifiable. But that doesn't change the fact that you killed a person. A child, a parent, a sibling, a citizen of a country. But the law understands based on the circumstances surrounding the event.

If the statement by Chimamanda offends you as a feminist, so much that you want to cancel her, then you are not there yet in terms of personal responsibility and maturity.

As for me, should I meet Chimamanda tomorrow and should she tell me, "Mavis, you can be really mean and nasty", I'll say, "Yes, I agree. But that mean and nasty get the job done."

Knowing that you are doing evil and accepting to take responsibility for that evil are what it means to be conscious of your ideology and the way you choose to go about it.

No regrets.