Nollywood actress, Bimbo Akintola, has stated her stance with feminism and how she has been mistaken for one because of her movie roles.
In a recent interview, Bimbo said she is a humanist and not a feminist. She said her fans often refer to her as a feminist.
According to her, she is more involved with women, girl-child affairs because of her personal reasons and experiences but she is also interested in all humans.
She referred to femimism as being toxic.
She said, “My passion for the girl-child and the women does not make me a feminist; I am a humanist.
“I don’t like this feminist idea because I think there’s a focus on this wing of feminism that is extreme. It’s toxic. I don’t want to be part of that. I want us to realise that you care about humans if you say you are a humanist.
“That means every individual: boy, girl, woman, man; everybody. My niche is the women and the girl child because there is so much to do concerning this issue in Nigeria.
“I am always one sucker for anything that has to do with women and the girl child. You can catch me in those kinds of stories; those are my favourite stories.
“I mean, sometimes when I meet women or children who would say to me, ‘oh that film’, like when we did “Widows the morning after”, with Jide Odomosu, I had a woman work up to me, she was crying, she said that was my story you told.
She stated that her drive towards advocating for women and girl children stemmed from what she saw while working with organisations in chathe of sexual assault.
“I understand and see the plight of the girl child. I have always worked with organisations that have dealt with sexual assaults and other related issues. I’ve worked with Mirabel centre; I ran away, I must confess, because I was so depressed.
“I saw a lot, and I have also done a lot of work in the northeast with women and children and the girl child. I have seen a lot of situations of women and children in Nigeria,” she said.
