Random Thoughts Of The Lady Next Door

Dear Feminist, There are days when speaking up and challenging pernicious narratives will confer on you some form of veneration. People will applaud you. You will feel like the messiah, the one who has been chosen to speak up for those who are either too timid to hold their own opinions, or simply lack the eloquence to share their thoughts convincingly. And boy, does this feel so good. Here's the ugly part, though: these times never last. Brace up for the next phase; that phase in which you will begin to sound like a broken record. You will shout out in defence of your gender, but you will be knocked down by a wall of silence—the intimidating silence of your own members.  You will question your sense of humour when everyone else laughs at jokes that disparage you and other members of your gender. You will tell yourself that you aren't any more special than the feminists who find these jokes hilarious. You will ask yourself who you think you are, to object to a joke that even yo...

Today on WORLD BOOK DAY, I acknowledge the Holy Spirit, author of the most controversial yet life-changing book ever known to man—the Bible. PC: biblestudytools.com I also celebrate the young icon, activist, feminist and brain behind the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign, Marley Dias. In 2015, the then 10-year-old of Jamaican-American descent challenged the crying lack of diversity in children's storybooks and launched a campaign to collect 1000 books featuring black girls as the protagonist.   By the end of the campaign, Marley had successfully reached nearly ten times her initial target for the book collection. Today, she distributes these books to young girls of colour across the world so that they can see themselves represented in the books they read. PC: smithsonianmag.com 15-year-old Marley Dias has made something more out of her love for books. She has turned her hobby and passion into a tool for repressing racism and gender bias as enable...