When I began shaping this issue, one question echoed persistently: Who gets to tell the story?
Stories are how we make sense of the world — how we name what matters, who matters, and why. Yet, throughout history, the stories told about women have often not been our own. They have been rewritten, reduced, or erased altogether.
Language, the very tool through which we connect and communicate, has too often been used to silence, diminish, and subjugate.
Through research and lived experience, we see that language is never neutral, as it mirrors our power structures, our histories, and our blind spots. The words we choose, the narratives we elevate, and the voices we ignore all shape a world where women’s experiences are continually reframed and redefined by others.
The Tales We Tell is our attempt to listen differently. Through these stories, we explore how agenda setting, framing, and linguistic bias shape not only media and culture but also our collective understanding of identity and power. Together, these essays and stories confront the “single story” that flattens women’s lives into narrow archetypes — the victim, the muse, the temptress — and offer new ways of seeing: stories told with women, not merely about them.
In this issue, we turn our attention to the subtle and overt ways that power operates through words. We ask the questions: Who gets to speak? Whose voices echo the loudest? And what happens to those who are spoken over, misrepresented, misunderstood, or dismissed altogether?
From newsrooms to boardrooms, in classrooms and on screens, language shapes perception — and perception, in turn, shapes reality. Yet language can also liberate. It can reclaim, redefine, and resist. Across these stories, we examine how women are rewriting their narratives — challenging linguistic hierarchies, reclaiming their right to name their experiences, and expanding the ways we tell, hear, and hold stories.
In “Language, Power and Self-Image,” we consider how the words we use about women — and the words women use about themselves — can either confine or empower identity.
“Seeing and Being Seen” explores how the media curates women’s visibility, deciding who gets the spotlight and who remains in the shadows.
“Naming as Power” delves into the radical act of self-definition — how calling things by their true names becomes a form of feminist resistance.
In “Beyond the Single Story,” we revisit Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s warning about the dangers of the single story, share our view on the consequences of reducing women to archetypes, and celebrate the multiplicity of women’s lived experiences.
Some of the stories in this issue are deeply personal. In “The Evening I Became a Woman” and “A Portrait of Grace Walking Backwards with Her Left Hand,” womanhood is explored not as a fixed destination but as the lifelong, messy, tender, and transformative act of becoming.
“The Story of Love” offers a lighter yet meaningful reflection on how understanding the five love languages can reshape how we connect — not only with others but also with ourselves.
And in “Lost in Translation or Algospeak,” we turn our gaze to the digital realm, where women’s voices are increasingly softened, distorted, or silenced by algorithms that claim to represent them.
We also look to art and storytelling as sites of resistance and reclamation. “What Is the Value of a Woman?” examines the Ghanaian film Nteteye Pa, unearthing the intersections of gender, value, and tradition. Our feature essay, “Rewriting the Story,” revisits Ama Ata Aidoo’s Changes: A Love Story — a timeless meditation on womanhood, independence, and the politics of language in postcolonial Ghana.
The Tales We Tell is not merely an exploration of language; it is an act of re-storying — a reminder that every word carries weight, and every story told differently moves us closer to truth.
Editing this issue has reaffirmed for me that storytelling is both an act of creation and resistance. Every story retold from the margins, every word reclaimed, is a step toward rewriting the narrative.
Thank you for joining us in this work.
With warmth and conviction,
Sika-Ayiwa Afriyie Safo,
Editor-in-Chief
