Why Nigerian Feminists are bitter

Feminism is the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. An ideology that aims to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes.

However, it is not surprising that in a patriarchal society like Nigeria, with conservative moral standards and religious bigotry, feminism is terribly frowned upon.

This no doubt naturally encourages assumptions and misconceptions about people that take on the mantra, I’m a feminist.

Before feminism became a hotspot in Nigeria today, feminists like Olaoluwa Abagun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Ire Aderinokun etc have all been actively vocal since the early 2000s about feminism but have received and still receiving backlash from society.

Women in Nigeria go through a lot and mostly subjugated. However, don’t forget the country is a product of a historical stance about the place of women in society. Even before the incursion of any external religion, men are known to have been wielding the best position in society. Women on the other hand occupy housewives, subjugated widows, etc

Moreso, when they began to feel cheated and react, they label them witch, that’s, knowing too much, bitter, overzealous, not knowing their place etc. Using everyday experiences, on both social media and real life, these are the common misconceptions about feminism that I have observed.

In conversation by most intellectuals about demanding gender equality, there is always the category of people who outrightly claim that men at the top and women below are the way our culture dictates.

The Nigerian culture has been known historically to designate specific roles for men and women. Men and boys go out to jobs that are perceived as masculine while women and girls stay home, cooking and cleaning and waiting for midnight sex.

One thing we must know is that cultures were created by humans, and can be amended by them. If the bearing of twins was one time a crime, time as change that scope and we now believed it is a blessing to the family. I believe such too can be replicated in the role of women in society.

We (men and women) are a product of a society that is killing our dreams; we are in a country whose minimum wage is not enough to cater for the growing and expensive cost of living.

Husband returns from work and begins to act provoked to his dear family as a result of the bitterness at work. After wive too returns from work, tired and frustrated the man will still expect her to cook, wash, sex with various styles.