Reactions to Hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody
I am not a feminist simply because I was raised in a feminist household. I am not a feminist because I am an independent, educated woman. I am not a feminist because I am a bitter female, nor because I am a “woman scorned.” I am not a feminist because I hate men, nor because I am a lesbian nor because I like to listen to the Indigo Girls. To the contrary I love men and I am not a lesbian. While I agree with hooks that “feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (viii), I believe that her definition of “feminism” states the goals of the movement rather than actually defining the term itself. In my mind, feminism is a synonym for equality. I am a feminist because I believe in the equality between men and women, plane and simple. No hidden agenda, no gimmicks, no tricky explanations. Sounds like an easy enough concept to comprehend. So why then is feminism such a misunderstood and feared notion? Why has this “ism” in particular become the new f-word of pop culture? Equality is a word commonly associated with American culture; it is a long-standing theme of our history. This does not make a great deal of sense to me. After all, America was established on the premise that all MEN are created EQUAL. The term “men” is very specific as is the rest of the wording of the Constitution. It is doubtful that the founding fathers of our country meant this to include men and women or else they would have stated exactly that. It is only in the latter half of the past century that this equality was extended to include the fair treatment of all peoples, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity. America was first settled in large part by religious outcasts seeking a saf...
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...y personal movement. hooks encourages her readers to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future. Her book literally speaks to everybody, asking readers, whether they are feminist or not, to take look at feminism in a new light, to see that it touches all lives. No longer will people (men or women) have the excuse that feminism is “too complex” to understand, nor will they be able to get by on third-hand knowledge (as hooks refers to on vii) of the topic. As hooks intended, I finally have a book to hand to all of my friends (both male and female) who gave me strained looks because I lived on Mt. Vernon last year or because I am more than willing to admit that I am proud to be a feminist. hooks shows that feminism—far from being an outdated concept or one limited to an intellectual elite—is indeed for everybody.
When WWII ended, Americans were left in the hands of Harry Truman. Known as an aggressive Cold War fighter, he led Americans against...
“Truman, Harry S.” The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia: Columbia, 1994. Online. Internet. Available at HTTP: http://www.historychannel.com/. 24 Sept. 2001.
It amazes me how a few decades ago can seem like a whole different world. A course of time can impact our lives more than we know it. In the article, A Day Without Feminism by Jennifer Boumgoidnei and Amy Richntds, both of these authors created this piece to inform their audience that although women have gained more rights over time, there was still more progress to be made. These authors gave many examples of how life for women had been, the obstacles they had to overcome, and the laws women had to break for equality.
Truman’s accomplishments in his domestic policy were impressive, considering the hardships the nation was experiencing as World War II came to an end, and the resistance of Congress (which was greatly made up of Republicans and conservatives) to liberalism. The president was able to pas...
Harry Truman known as for having a heroic presidency served our country as the 33rd president of the United States after the death of Franklin Roosevelt in April. Truman only had a high school education and was only vice president for 82 days before the passing of FDR. He had inherited the huge tasks of leading the United States through the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. Truman’s legacy as the nation’s leader is on point of controversial decisions.
Feminism, as defined in the dictionary, is “the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.” This doesn’t mean that women are just a bit tired of earning 75% that a man does for the same job. This means that women are standing up for themselves and are trying to achieve rights that they should already have. We were all brought into this world by a woman, but they are still not a man’s equal. Why is that? Is it too much to ask for to not be raped or killed or cast aside simply because of gender? Why is it that there are men out there that believe feminism is a scourge upon this earth that must be wiped out? They feel that their power over women is being threatened.
Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2011). Race Against the Machine: How Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity and Ireversibly Tranforming Employment and the Economy. Lexington, Massachusetts: Digital Frontier Press.
Truman became President of the United States at a difficult and decision filled time. World War 2 was coming to an end. Only 2 weeks into Truman’s Presidency Adolf Hitler committed suicide and the allies declared victory. Although the war ended in Europe, the war in the Pacific was far from over. During the War, the British and US were in the middle of making the most powerful weapon the world has ever seen, the atomic ...
In this case women are stuck where in no matter how they act or how they dress, they end up put into a label they do not necessarily belong in. The main goal of feminism is to create equality for women and fight against the labels put on them. Though throughout time feminism itself has been given a negative label. In today 's society women do not want to be referred to as feminists from fear of being labeled as a bitter man hating woman. This is definitely amplified in media today. Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist, brings up the idea of the essential feminist and where it suggests,” anger, humorlessness, militancy, unwavering principles, and a prescribed set of rules for how to be a proper feminist woman” (169). This fear of being labeled a feminist not only comes from fear of being thought of as angry or humorless, but from being attacked for not being the “proper feminist woman”.
We live in the modern society where women can vote, work, have access to birth control, freedom of speech, and be independent. However, two articles written by feminist writers Jessica Valenti and bell hooks demonstrate that feminism still exist because of an inevitable inequality that women face in the society. Both writers are convinced that most of the people do not really know what feminism is about or they do not look at it closer in order to be able to understand the purpose of this movement. According to them, feminism is not about being anti-men and spreading hatred towards males as many individuals claim. As bell hooks states in her article “[…] I tend to hear about the evil of feminism […] how ‘they’ hate men […]” (11). Feminism does
“Feminism”, as defined today, is “1: the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes,” and “2: organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.”2 Many critics claim that feminism has been active longer than the word itself has existed.3 The word, “feminist” was not in true use until the late 1800s and early 1900s, but activism for women’s rights was alive and well a...
Until recently, I was like a great number of people in today’s society who are afraid of being called a “feminist,” as if this were the same as being branded a witch in the 17th century Salem. Feminism is a word that everyone has heard of, but to most, it carries a disagreeable connotation. It brings up images of burning bras, the hatred of men and angry, overly passionate, bossy women who want to bring down the patriarchy. In short, feminist has become a “bad word,” viewed as something you do not want to be for fear of losing friends and relationships; but I would assert the only bad word in 2015 is not “feminism,” but rather “meninism,” the counter to the women’s rights movement. This is a topic that can no longer be ignored and shoved aside for being
Hooks, bell. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000. Print.
One can hardly talk of a single united feminism, but rather, manifold feminisms. The US feminist movement ‘s main global struggle has been to enable ‘womankind’ to fully lead her existence and live her humanity by standing against the injustices of the dominant patriarchy and sexist discrimination . Throughout history, the dominant mainstream Feminism ( with capital F) tends to have been related to conform to the aspiration of the educated middle-class heterosexual white women who have traditionally been given unequal power to widen their significance--but the movement has lately had more ramifications. Currently, there are different kinds of feminism whose disagreements stem from fundamental intrinsic understanding of what feminism, sexism or phallocentrism mean. Each trend views it from a different perspective as in accordance with its motives or concerns. Nonetheless, they share common claims as to “the body, class and work, disability, the family, globalization, human rights, popular culture, race and racism, reproduction, science, the self, sex work, and sexuality.”
Misandrists. Extremists. Radical Feminists. These are all forms of extreme feminists, associating themselves with the movement when they are the ones responsible for creating a negative and unfair image of ‘Feminism’. The mere word attracts raised eyebrows and queer looks - the only reason being that its true definition has been buried by women who take it too far. Many people are ignorant of the movement, but they aren’t aware that gender inequality is an on-going issue. Without a doubt, this movement needs to be given more significance as women’s oppression exists to this day.