REACTION PAPER WEEK 8
Bell Hooks ‘Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory’ first published 1984 edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani (2001) Outlines a different theoretical and epistemological attitude in gender studies, ideal work at exposing the ruins of feminism as a liberal movement by privileged whites. The basis of hooks’ method are fundamentally Marxist approach, the conflict amid the oppressors and the repressed that exists in this case, she claims that Black women are discriminated also their status as being the most oppressed in the feminist theory is ignored by the paradigmatic epistemology, led by White women like Friedan.
White Western upper or middle class feminist theorists maintained mistakenly that gender is formed separately of class
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In other words, she is saying the shared experiences above mentioned are lesser important than the cultural and economic domination of the rich over the poor, the Whites over the "People of Colour".
Hooks assertion of race and class differences produce a difficult challenges or even impossible for all women to share mutual platform, even in the feminist movement. Although she is cautious to blame Friedan without stating her work to be useless, Hooks is nonetheless direct in arguing that Friedan misrepresents women's matters and is one-sided portrait of the upper/middle class women, who emancipates herself by the consumption of material goods a Black or other lower class woman services (Maid, nanny, cleaner), or and that are repressive towards other
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Brah and Phoenix analysis Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” which the article title is named, they draw attention the significance of the subjectivity and social, political, economic and cultural “Othering” within. They claim that identity is a process “constituted in and through power relations” (77)
El-Tayeb, outline Europeanisation the struggle of minority groups/ migrant. All the readings of the week are speaking about populations that are disadvantaged within a broader social environment, that have access to both the dominant form of knowledge and the particular specific knowledge to their own community, therefore can’t avoid confrontations between the two, and these might give an insight to how both work, in a ways that might not happen if each is looked in isolation.
Hooks, bell (2001) ‘Black Women Shaping Feminist Theory’, in Feminism & Race, ed. by Kum-Kum Bhavnani. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.
*Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. "African American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race" in Feminism and History, ed. Joan Wallach Scott (NY: Oxford University Press, 1996), 201.
Collins, Patricia. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000
In “In Living Color: Race and American Culture”, Michael Omi claims that racism still takes place in America’s contemporary society. According to Omi, media and popular culture shape a segregating ideology by giving a stereotypical representation of black people to the public, thus generating discrimination between races (Omi 115:166). In “Bad Feminist: Take One”, Roxane Gay discusses the different roles that feminism plays in our society. She argues that although some feminist authors and groups try to create a specific image of the feminist approach, there is no definition that fully describe feminism and no behaviors that can make someone a good feminist or a bad feminist (Gay 304:306). Both authors argue
Collins, Patricia Hill. "Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images." Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000. 89. Print.
In her novel called “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center” one of the many areas bell hooks speaks of is the perpetual racial confinement of oppressed black women. The term double-bind comes to mind when she says “being oppressed means the absence of choices” (hooks 5). The double-bind is “circumstances in which choices are condensed to a few and every choice leads to segregation, fault or denial” Therefore, this essay will discuss how hooks’ definition of oppression demonstrates the double-bind in race relations, forcing the socially underprivileged minority to “never win,” and as a result allowing the privileged dominate “norm” to not experience perpetual segregation.
Bell hooks covers an abundance of issues through different class, race, gender and nation. In her article ‘Feminism A Movement to End Sexist Oppression’ she begins by discussing the oppression of mainly black women who are in a lower class. Hooks discusses if men become associated with the feminist movement it would mainly affect the upper class and middle aged white women while just scratching the surface for working-class and poor women. In the recent article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ bell hooks discusses the oppression about the racism faced by black people. I find it that this article is more non-intersectional because we are only talking about black people in general. We can only assume that hooks is discussing racism faced by poor black people because they were servants. Further into the article however hooks does focus on African Americans and we read upon what their impression of the white man could be. Hook also looks as students and how racism occurred in one of her class discussions. Finally, we look at the view of two black women and how they faced racism. The first woman was Njeri from ‘Every Good-Bye Ain’t Gone and how her grandfather was run over by 2 white guys. The second woman was Sethe from ‘Beloved’ by Morrision and how she killed her young because she didn’t want them to grow up in a world of terror. I found it that hooks did not say specifically who she is talking about like in her article ‘Feminism A Movement to End Sexist Oppression’ but is targeting the topic of racism all
“[T]he cage may or may not be specifically developed for the purpose of trapping the bird, yet it still operates (together with the other wires) to restrict its freedom” (Alexander, 184). This metaphor used by Michelle Alexander gives a good basis on the idea of intersectionality within feminist theory. What Alexander has stressed hugely in ‘The New Jim Crow’ is the idea of racial hierarchy, which bell hooks also stresses in her chapter Men: Comrades in Struggle in her book ‘Feminist Theory: from margin to center.’ She discusses the hierarchy of men and women while also discussing race. She claims that the history of the feminist movement has not wanted to “acknowledge that bourgeois white women, though often victimized by sexism, have more
During the second week of class, we were instructed to read a reading written by Bell Hooks titled “Come closer to Feminism.” This reading is what I consider to be a very important addition to this unit. Unit one is all about Making waves, Confronting Oppression. According to Frye, it is a fundamental claim of feminism that women are oppressed (Frye, 1983). Before taking upon this reading, my understanding of the feminist movement was not nearly as clear as it is now. After reading this short handbook, I too agree that feminism is for everybody.
Women continuously are portrayed as subordinate in comparison to men. This idea eventually created another idea; feminism. Sheryl Sandberg, wrote a book about these feminist concerns, claiming that women are the source of the inequalities. Sandberg believes women need to alter their life in accommodation to equality. However female activist bell hooks writes in response to Sandberg arguing that men created this stereotypical “stay at home” woman. Hooks begins by going further than Sandberg, in reasoning about the unequal gender crisis, with putting both men and women at fault.
To be labeled as a feminist is such a broad classification therefore it is divided into various subsections, one such subsection is known as hip hop feminism in which Ruth Nicole closely associates herself with throughout this essay I will thoroughly discuss this form of feminism. Ruth Nicole is a black woman that categorizes herself as a girl, by her definition a girl is far from independent. Black girlhood discusses the shared experiences of the ever-changing body, which has been marked as vibrant, Black, and female, along with memories and representations of being female. As a result, Ruth Nicole wrote Black Girlhood Celebration in order to share her personal and political motivations of working with black girls within the community. A conversation that is not often articulated about due to a language barrier. In which this discussion accurately details a means to work with black girls in such a way that does not control their body or pilfer black female individuality. Under those circumstances, Brown believes that black girls are being exploited for their physique through the use of music and instructed to conform to white norms constructed by society.
Ruiz, Delia. Women of Color in Modern Society. New York, NY: Harper and Row Press,
In her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks describes how she helps her students find their voice within her classroom.She discusses her use of authority to enable her students.For her, teacher authority is a necessary part of helping her students find their voices:
Hook’s title undermines “Sandburg using feminist rhetoric as a front to cover her commitment to western cultural imperialism, to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” (674). She calls it “Dig Deep” because “New face of faux feminism” (674). One of the most detrimental things that can happen to the feminist movement is to have faux feminist. Faux (fake) feminist diminish the importance and value that feminist attempt to establish in society by using feminism as a means to bash on non-feminists.
Multiracial Feminism: Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism introduces ideas by Becky Thompson that contradict the “traditional” teachings of the Second Wave of feminism. She points out that the version of Second Wave feminism that gets told centers around white, middle class, US based women and the central problem being focused on and rallied against is sexism. This history of the Second Wave does not take into consideration feminist movements happening in other countries. Nor does it take into consideration the feminist activism that women of color were behind, that centered not only on sexism, but also racism, and classism as central problems as well. This is where the rise of multiracial feminism is put to the foreground and
Hooks begins by stating that Feminism in the United States did not emerge as a result of victimized, underprivileged women who faced sexist oppression so much so they have internalized it , but in fact by bourgeois upper-class white women whose idea's of equality were far different. She begins this criticism with Betty Friedan, a leading figure in the women's movement and the author of the classic The Feminine Mystique claiming that the book ignored the difficulty and even the existence of non-white, poor women with the assumption that her concerns were harmonious wi...