Understanding Patriarchy Bell Hooks Summary

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In “Understanding Patriarchy,” bell hooks lays the groundwork for her most regarded feminist perspective. hooks articulates the singular reason for the social disparity between genders: a “political-social system” that everyone prescribes to and which negatively impacts the way people exist (p. 1). hooks contests that this system affects everyone alike. In it, persons’ genders are funneled into man and woman depending on their biologically-assigned sex. Men are praised for attributes understood as masculine – violence, autonomy, authority, and individualism, for example. Women are praised for certain traits as well– communal, passive, weak, and submissive, to name a few. Further, the traits which are not lateral to one’s apparent gender are not just ignored or not awarded but violently opposed. This is …show more content…

She sees a common thread in misandry-type feminism, which interprets gender inequality as misogyny and sexism in the hopes of benefitting women and supplying them with the same right to domination that men are currently afforded (pp. 3-4). This is not the solution. Psychological patriarchy damages everyone. Due to the nature of patriarchy, people are best valued by their ability to perform their prescribed gender. hooks reckons this understanding eventually guides men, even anti-patriarchal men, into patriarchal roles. Addressing patriarchy means to properly address our relationships with others and where the values we place on others originate. “Understanding Patriarchy” is a call to end patriarchy, the concrete violence it advocates, and the psychological control it has over subjectivity. The first step is to name the problem. The second step is to challenge situations of patriarchy. Reimagining masculinity with egalitarian values will heal the “normal traumatization” of boys, and it will allow for new models of being. Ending patriarchy will afford everyone the ability to exist and be valued beyond the gender

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