Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Suggests Trans Women And Cis Women Don't Have The Same

In an interview with the U.K.'sChannel 4 News posted Friday, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was asked if being a transgender woman makes you "any less of a real woman."

In her response, Adichie — who's known for her Beyoncé-sampled TEDx Talk "We Should All Be Feminists" and her novel Americanah — said she can't equate transgender women and women because they've had different life experiences:

"I think that trans women are trans women," Adichie said. "I think the whole problem of gender in the world is about our experiences. It's not about how we wear our hair or whether we have a vagina or joystick, it's about the way the world treats us.

"And I think if you've lived in the world as a man, with the privileges that the world accords to men, and then sort of changed, switched gender, it's difficult for me to accept that then we can equate your experience with the experience of a woman who has lived from the beginning in the world as a woman, and who has not been accorded those privileges that men have."