--- title: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Talkes Beyonce Song Flawless Feminism description: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wonders why the world has decided that a woman celebrating her sexuality is a bad thing canonical: https://time.com/32473/even-macarthur-geniuses-love-beyonce/ author: Kelly Conniff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-20T22:16:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:02.409Z og:title: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Talkes Beyonce Song Flawless Feminism og:description: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wonders why the world has decided that a woman celebrating her sexuality is a bad thing og:url: https://time.com/32473/even-macarthur-geniuses-love-beyonce/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Talkes Beyonce Song Flawless Feminism twitter:description: Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wonders why the world has decided that a woman celebrating her sexuality is a bad thing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Even MacArthur Geniuses Love Beyoncé  by [Kelly Conniff](https://time.com/author/kelly-conniff/)  ## Kelly Conniff Conniff is deputy editor at TIME. Mar 20, 2014 10:16 PM UTC  by [Kelly Conniff](https://time.com/author/kelly-conniff/)  ## Kelly Conniff Conniff is deputy editor at TIME. Mar 20, 2014 10:16 PM UTC The feminist who inspired Beyoncé may have just provided the perfect argument against the singer’s haters. Nigerian author and MacArthur fellow Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who’s most recent book _Americanah_ just won a [National Book Critics Circle](http://bookcritics.org/awards) award, [spoke to NPR’s Michele Martin](http://www.npr.org/2014/03/18/291133080/news-maker) in a wide-ranging interview that touched on the nuances of feminism in the West, Nigeria’s anti-gay laws and her love of fashion. But the most fascinating part of the interview comes when Martin asks the author’s opinion of Beyoncé, who famously sampled Adichie’s viral [TED talk](http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/We-should-all-be-feminists-Chim) “We Should All Be Feminists” in her song “\*\*\*Flawless.” Martin points out that the singer is often criticized for celebrating her sexuality while calling herself a feminist at the same time. Adichie provides a pitch perfect response that’s exceptional not only because it’s void of the usual celebrity gushing, but still perfectly reasoned. --- > “” --- The accomplished Adichie declines to confirm whether new “It” girl Lupita Nyong’o will star in the movie adaptation of _Americanah,_ but reveals that the actress “is probably going to option” the book.Her previous novel, _Half of a Yellow Sun_, was made into a movie last year starring Nyong’o’s 1_2 Years a Slave_ co-star, Chiewetel Ejiofor. **MORE:** [Flawless: 5 Lessons in Modern Feminism From Beyoncé](http://time.com/1851/flawless-5-lessons-in-modern-feminism-from-beyonce/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/32473/even-macarthur-geniuses-love-beyonce/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/32473/even-macarthur-geniuses-love-beyonce/"},"headline":"Even MacArthur Geniuses Love Beyoncé","datePublished":"2014-03-20T22:16:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:02.409Z","description":"Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wonders why the world has decided that a woman celebrating her sexuality is a bad thing","url":"https://time.com/32473/even-macarthur-geniuses-love-beyonce/","keywords":["Living","feminism","Nigeria"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kelly Conniff","jobTitle":"Conniff is deputy editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/kelly-conniff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/32473/even-macarthur-geniuses-love-beyonce/","name":"Even MacArthur Geniuses Love Beyoncé"}}]}] ```