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Anthony Joshua says let boys be boys and girls prepare to be wives – Chimamanda’s clap back

Nigerians were busy minding Buhari’s business, some cursing out the president for going to a wedding in Kano when he could not visit Dapchi- until  Anthony Joshua’s GQ interview became public

Anthony Joshua is a British Nigerian boxer winning championships and doing great things abroad. – you can understand why that’s our business.

In the interview, he made a sexist comment that suggested that it’s normal to let boys be boys while “little girls prepare for the kitchen and the other room”  

See interview excerpt below

Are you a strict dad?
I don’t think I’m that strict with Joseph, I don’t know why. But with my niece I’m strict. I think it is because she is older, but also he’s a boy – he’s going to be a man’s man, he’ll want to spread his wings, be a Jack-the-lad, build his character.

But I am sure there are things I will be strict about. But with my niece, there is none of that Jack-the-lad nonsense for her! My view is you have to be a good woman, respectful, one day you will be someone’s wife, and you have to learn family morals… what it is to be a good woman.

As you can imagine, Naija was split on the issue across gender- most men taught well, what’s wrong with teaching girls good morals, while women were like its 2018-dude, why should boys play while girls prepare for marriage.

As the storm rages on twitter- we decided to check with Africa’s most famous feminist –Chimamanda Adiche. She spoke at length about men like Anthony Joshua in her famous speech on Ted talks – we should all be feminist

Here are 10 quotes  from Chimamanda Adiche that is a direct clap back at Anthony Joshua

  • “Why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage, yet we don’t teach boys to do the same?”
  • “Our society teaches a woman at a certain age who is unmarried to see it as a deep personal failure. While a man at a certain age who is unmarried has not quite come around to making his pick.
  • We spend too much time teaching girls to worry about what boys think of them. But the reverse is not the case. We don’t teach boys to care about being likeable.”
  • “We use the word respect for something a woman shows a man, but not often for something a man shows a woman.”
  • “We teach females that in relationships, compromise is what a woman is more likely to do.”
  • “We police girls. We praise girls for virginity but we don’t praise boys for virginity (and it makes me wonder how exactly this is supposed to work out, since the loss of virginity is a process that usually involves two people of the opposite genders).”
  • “We teach girls shame. Close your legs. Cover yourself. We make them feel as though by being born female, they are already guilty of something.”
  • “And then we do a much greater disservice to girls, because we raise them to cater to the fragile egos of males. We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man.

And the world agrees with Chimamanda….

Beyoncé used these quotes in her song Flawless…

Swedish government mandated that every 16 year old should be given a copy of that speech as part of their school curriculum.

Someone tell Anthony Joshua that this is 2018, the era of the empowered woman

 

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