FEMINISM IS BIGGER THAN OUR PERSONAL BEEFS

The funny thing about the Bitter Feminist award is that some of the contestants could be in one another's blocklist and yet still manage to cross paths a lot because we are all passionate about the same cause and are pushing towards a common goal.

Many times I have come across a post on Facebook, and I would start reading it, nodding to it, decide that I will drop a love reaction, then arrive to the end and find out that it has been written by someone I have fallen out with. It happens a lot with Ijeoma's posts. I read a lot of her posts on my timeline and I'd say over 90% of the time, I agree with what she writes. And recently it has been happening with Chinenye's posts.

When such a scenario presents itself, as it often does, I simply go ahead and do what I had planned to do while reading the post. I love it. It is the right thing to do. Whenever you react on a post or you comment on it, you increase its visibility. And if a message is worth spreading, it shouldn't matter if you nurture an antipathy for the writer or not. Still go ahead and spread it.

Besides I did not fall out with Ijeoma and Chinenye because we had differences about feminism. Our fall out was related to personal issues. Nevertheless, those personal issues are not important enough and will never be to overshadow the common cause that we all fight for, at least for me.

Even though I won this year, I would have been happy if either of them had won instead. Because like I said, they both preach the feminist gospel.

When feminists fall out with one another, people are always quick to attribute the cause to women's inability to be friends with another. And that's silly. Women are people, and people have unique personalities and characters, and sometimes, those personalities and characters are not compatible with someone else's.

Feminism is an ideology. It is not an indication of someone's personality or moral values. Feminists believe that men and women deserve equal rights and access to opportunities and resources. We advocate for women's humanity to be recognized. We push to dismantle double standards, manipulation, and gaslighting against women. And all of these are goals that we can successfully achieve without wanting to be in each other's space.

In conclusion, I want to appreciate Ijeoma and Chinenye for the amazing work that they have been doing to push forth the feminist agenda. I also want to thank all the other ladies that were nominated, and even the ones that were not nominated.

We have really come a long way. Take it from someone whose advocacy started in 2005 on Nairaland when we were a dozen of feminists fighting against a horde of patriarchists.

Cheers to Feminism.

It is what matters in the end.