A521.2.3.RB_Danger of Stories

Storytelling has been around for centuries and at times it is all that we know of our past but unfortunately single stories have the ability to dictate human emotions both negatively and positively. Adichie discusses the danger of the single story which is present in all countries and cultures; no one is exempt from it. In her message it is clear how people, including myself do not realize how powerful those single stories can potentially become.

The stories that Adichie shares demonstrated how a single story can affect anyone at any age. Her description of the books she read as a child and how they in turn affected what she wrote about gives a new meaning to the way we interpret what we know and or have learned and it also solidifies how impressionable people can be.

I believe the messages that Adichie presented are powerful. I too have been on both the receiving end of a single story as well I have been painted into a bad light from a single story. Below is an example of how single stories have affected me personally and what motivates me to teach and educate others.

Since the age of 16 I have been open about my sexuality. I came out to my parents and I was not necessarily embraced with all the love in the world. It took time for my family to come around to who I am and I had to prove that I was still worthy of everything this world had to offer. Over the years my mother has come to love and embrace me more than anyone ever could but it was a struggle. After the battle of Stonewall in the 1950s the homosexual community was finally trying to portray a better portrait for society but the community took a major setback when homosexuality was casted into a negative light in the 1980s when the AIDS virus became increasingly more popular amongst gay men. Single stories swanned such as “all gay men have unprotected sex” or “only gays get AIDS because God doesn’t approve of them.” This negative connation inspired these single stories all across the world. This idea that all homosexuals were promiscuous and had AIDS became the topic of dinner tables and young gay men and women were forced back into the closet. These single stories also produced a generation filled with hate and many young gay men and women committed suicide when the stories became too much. I grew up the south and you were not come out about being gay/lesbian and it was common that people went away to “camps” when they did come out. These camps were to fix the problem and bring the person back to the heterosexual side of the sexuality spectrum (if it could be that easy or as if it was a choice). All of the stories starting from the Bible up through the 1950s with Stonewall and then to the 1980s bred hatred about a community that like everyone else just wanted equality, love and the ability to live their lives peacefully. It has been an interesting experience for me in that I don’t look like what people would think a typical lesbian should look like. I get my hair and nails done, I wear makeup and I love heels so more commonly than not I can stand amongst a group of people and listen to their take on the community I associate with without them ever knowing who I am. I have heard the stories that have been shared amongst families and I see the new stories being created. It is sad that at the time we are in we still feel as though people should be painted into a certain idea or box.

I shared this story because I feel that even I am affected by single stories. I too have made judgments about people from what I have learned or heard about. I hear it more commonly than not, “I want to make the decision for myself…” but I think it is hard at times to clear the fogginess of what we have learned and make clear value-less judgments based on nothing we have heard or learned before. Just like my story robs me of my dignity, other stories I have learned about also rob others of theirs. In order to breed a world filled with understanding, love and acceptance we have to be careful of the stories we share and persona we put out into the world. Just like Adichie said, not all of Africa is just animals, poverty and AIDS but if we continue to state that as the truth, at someone point we will create a reality with those single stories.