#IAINTSORRY “I Don’t Have Anything To Apologize for” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Stands By Her Comments Regarding Trans Women

Feminist Muva, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, caught major heat last week after stating that trans women are not the same as women who are born and live their lives as women.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

You can watch the video HERE, but the words that folks felt most offended by were:

“A Trans woman is a trans woman….I think the whole problem of gender in the world is about our experiences. It’s not about how we wear our hair or whether we have a vagina or a penis. It’s about the way the world treats us, and I think if you’ve lived in the world as a man with the privileges that the world accords to men and then sort of change gender, it’s difficult for me to accept that then we can equate your experience with the experience of a woman who has lived from the beginning as a woman and who has not been accorded those privileges that men are.”

Folks were big mad at these assertions, so Adichie issued a follow-up statement wherein she refused to apologize, but explained her position with perhaps a bit more clarity:

I don’t have anything to apologize for…What’s interesting to me is this is in many ways about language and I think it also illustrates the less pleasant aspects of the American left, that there sometimes is a kind of language orthodoxy that you’re supposed to participate in, and when you don’t there’s a kind of backlash that gets very personal and very hostile and very closed to debate.”

“This is fundamentally about language orthodoxy…There’s a part of me that resists this sort of thing because I don’t think it’s helpful to insist that unless you want to use the exact language I want you to use, I will not listen to what you’re saying.”

“From the very beginning, I think it’s been quite clear that there’s no way I could possibly say that trans women are not women. It’s the sort of thing to me that’s obvious, so I start from that obvious premise. Of course they are women but in talking about feminism and gender and all of that, it’s important for us to acknowledge the differences in experience of gender. That’s really what my point is.”

There you have it, folks! What are your thoughts?

 

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7 Comments

  1. Joelle B. says:

    As a woman, I agree with Adichie. There are situations in this world that no matter how you dress yourself up and change your name, the transgender woman and natural born woman experiences are not the same. Two of the main experiences being giving birth, and having a mental cycle. Transgender women could never relate to having cycles so bad you can’t get out of bed or wanting to fill your womb with a life only to be told that though you have the equipment, you may never have a child. These experiences alone make me feel that Transgender women are not considered women to me. In this world women are treated as prey and are considered less by society. As women we have to fight for what we are. Why do we have to fight for who we are as well?

  2. Ms. Saph5ire says:

    So is it LBGTQ or LBGWQ? They chose and approved that label not us. So no you are not a woman \

  3. Stephanie says:

    I agree with the the young lady in this article. A transgender woman will never know my experiences. She will never truly be able to understand what it means to be a woman in a male dominated society. At any point she can go back to identifying as male. It’s the notion that just because I say it doesn’t make it true. I can’t change my race just because I identify better with another one. The experiences we have is what’ shapes the very person we are. I am in no way trying to take from them because I will never understand what it feels like to be a transgendered woman.

  4. She said this concept was “a really hollow idea that if we say we don’t see colour, then somehow all the oppressions will disappear. That’s not the case.
    “I think there were people who felt I was somehow making a point about the Oppression Olympics: you haven’t suffered enough. It’s not at all that.
    “It’s simply to see that if we can acknowledge there are differences, then we can better honestly talk about things.”

  5. Gwendolyn says:

    GOD cannot make mistakes. We all are as we were born. Plain and simple. The problem in our society is that there’s No right and wrong Anymore. People think they can change the creation of GOD…The Purpose And His Plan.Just because they dont like it. Its a disgrace when we want to be, Other than what we were created to be And think a hundred surgeries will do just that. We Are Not The Creator But The Created!! Surely these are definitely the signs of Our Creator Coming Back Soon To Govern This World. WE SURE CANT. .Wrong is right..and Right is Wrong in this day and age…It won’t Remain….If YOUR BORN A MAN..YOU WILL NEVER BE A WOMAN….vs…..PEOPLE !! STOP ADDRESSING THESE MEN AS WOMEN!! Maybe then they will ONCE AGAIN REALIZE THEY ARE INDEED A MAN!!

    1. God's peace says:

      GOD bless you for declaring the truth!

  6. Love it!! I agree with you 100%

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