In Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, bell hooks sends an inclusive invitation in accessible language to all of her readers. Her invitation? “Come closer to feminism.”[1] As her readers learn about the feminist movement in her chapters, they find they are no longer alienated from its history in the United States. hooks patiently carries them forward through the trials and triumphs experienced at the heart of the movement. In doing so, she exudes the communal inclusivity at the center of her feminism, indeed the only feminism she believes can flourish. In each of her brief chapters, she imbues her words with a tendency towards the imaginative and ends with a vision. Importantly, hooks writes to all not only in practicing her communal, inclusive perspective, but also, in the spirit of cooperative, progressive, revolutionary feminism that seeks feminist alternatives in conjunction with others, without whom the movement could not succeed. At the root of hooks’ theory of change is the knowledge that in order to dismantle oppressive systems, new ways of being that are based in mutuality, communalism, and justice need to take their place.
Before exploring the alternatives that hooks proposes, it is worth noting that the very structure, form, and content of this book make it an alternative piece of feminist literature, accessible to all. Her inclusivity is expressed in the words, “feminists are made, not born.”[2] hooks writes short chapters and uses no abstruse language. This is part of her vision of feminism as a movement that helps all, not only a privileged few, and yet she does not alienate the few. On the contrary, she expresses that “revolutionary feminist thinking was most accepted and embraced in academic circles,” for example, and includes herself among the few as she writes, “It became a privileged discourse available to those among us who are highly literate, well-educated, and usually materially privileged.”[3] Nonetheless, hooks laments that feminist discourse is not accessible to the public in the same ways. The exclusive “sophisticated jargon” is circulated among the “’in’ crowd,”[4] and lived experiences are disregarded for the opinions of lettered individuals within the academy.[5] Perhaps it is not so much the elitism alone that troubles hooks, but especially the absence of a variety of texts that can reach diverse groups of people “in a range of styles and formats.”[6] She extends the feminist cause to men, too, as she writes, “a male who has divested of male privilege, who has embraced feminist politics, is a worthy comrade in struggle, in no way a threat to feminism.”[7]
At every opportunity, hooks invites her readers to envision alternatives both by offering them to us explicitly or by expressing the need for them to compete for and ultimately occupy those spaces where hegemonic white capitalist patriarchal practices and assumptions dominate. Her writing is peppered with such phrases as, “we must create it,”[8] “we are not doing enough,”[9] and “we still need to know what [it] looks like.”[10] Thus she makes very clear the urgency for not only critique, but concrete alternatives. “To critique sexist images without offering alternatives is an incomplete intervention. Critique in and of itself does not lead to change.”[11]
Additionally, hooks does not proffer alternatives only in the material sense. She presents alternative imaginations – imagined societies, masculinities, parent-child relations, and more. For “how can you become what you cannot imagine?”[12] And yet she recognizes that the material, the concrete, and the everyday are deeply implicated in the abstract, for she notes that life has become “far more complicated for women to have feminist thought and practice yet still remain within a patriarchal system of thought and action that is basically unchanged.”[13] For this reason, alternatives are offered and theorized in the plural. hooks alludes to this in her language as she writes of “blueprints for change” and explicitly states that “there is no one path to feminism,” since lived experiences vary widely.[14] This is of utmost importance, as hooks does not constrain visionary feminism by demanding a singular, prescriptive approach.
Thus, hooks’ readers find models for alternative visions of female bonding (“females can achieve self-actualization and success without dominating one another”),[15] education (“an unbiased curriculum” and “mass-based educational movement”),[16] parenting (“anti-sexist male parenting enhances the lives of children”),[17] history (“since the first people on the planet earth were nonwhite it is unlikely that white women were the first females to rebel against male domination”),[18] peace (“men and women have together made the United States a culture of violence and must work together to transform and recreate that culture”),[19] radical redistribution of wealth (“feminist women with class power, need to put in place low-income housing women can own”),[20] lifestyle (“to live fully and well, to do work which enhances self-esteem and self-respect while being paid a living wage”),[21] economy (“welfare not warfare”),[22]masculinity (“a vision of masculinity where self-esteem and self-love of one’s unique being forms the basis of identity”),[23] relationships (“peer relationships which are founded on principles of equality, respect, and the belief that mutual satisfaction and growth are needed for partnerships to be fulfilling and lasting”),[24] sexual freedom ( “knowledge of one’s body,” “sexual integrity,” and “teaching us how to respect our bodies”),[25] spirituality (“transform patriarchal religious thought so that more women can find a connection to the sacred and commit to spiritual life”),[26] and a feminism concerned with the most vulnerable people (“a visionary movement would ground its work in the concrete conditions of working-class and poor women”).[27]
In laying out these visions, many of which hooks feels are already being realized, hooks cautions her readers on multiple occasions that hegemony adapts to resistance and absorbs critique, reincarnating perpetually. With an understanding of the depth to which white supremacist capitalist patriarchy pervades every aspect of living, not only in occupations and economic means, but also in behavior, self-concepts, internalized beliefs, and the consciousness of all people, hooks points to inconsistencies and false feminisms with great meticulousness in order to prevent the corruption of feminism by the interests of the privileged. hooks offers one such example, emphasizing strongly the influence on feminism by privileged women. “Most women, especially privileged white women, ceased even to consider revolutionary feminist visions, once they began to gain economic power within the existing social structure.”[28] Additionally, she brings attention to the contradictory messages that give the illusion of progress while sustaining patriarchal norms in popular culture. “Today’s fashion magazines may carry an article about the dangers of anorexia while bombarding its readers with images of emaciated young bodies representing the height of beauty and desirability.”[29] In tirelessly and painstakingly offering example after example, hooks trains her readers in vigilance against such co-optations of feminism.
Yet hooks remains hopeful:
The fact that participants in the feminist movement could face critique and challenge while still remaining wholeheartedly committed to a vision of justice, of liberation, is a testament to the movement’s strength and power. It shows us that no matter how misguided feminist thinkers have been in the past, the will to change, the will to create the context for struggle and liberation, remains stronger than the need to hold on to wrong beliefs and assumptions.[30]
Efforts towards liberation are well under way, she reminds readers. By highlighting the many beneficial outcomes of feminist intervention thus far, whether in consciousness raising or in addressing violence against women, hooks presents visionary feminism as achievable and grounded in reality. At the same time, she emphasizes the importance of a critical consciousness first and foremost—doing away with internalized sexism, or “the enemy within.”[31] In moving towards feminist consciousness and liberation, the importance of “mutuality” and “interdependency” cannot be forgotten, as liberation cannot co-exist with class elitism, exploitation, or subordination.[32] Instead, it is mutuality, love, and recognition that bring an end to domination.
Bibliography
hooks, bell. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge: South End Press, 2000.
[1] bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (Cambridge: South End Press, 2000), vii.
[3] hooks, 5 (emphasis added).
[4] hooks, 112, 22.
[5]. hooks, 96. hooks’ writing bias can perhaps best be observed in pages 22-23 where she writes, “Literature that helps inform masses of people, that helps individuals understand feminist thinking and feminist politics, needs to be written in a range of styles and formats. We need work that is especially geared toward youth culture. No one produces this work in academic settings.”
[6] hooks, 22.
[7] hooks, 12.
[9] hooks, 35.
[10] hooks, 90. “It” here stands in for “liberatory sexual practice.”
[11] hooks, 35.
[12] hooks, 70.
[13] hooks, 115.
[16] hooks, 23.
[17] hooks, 75.
[18] hooks, 44.
[19] hooks, 65-66.
[20] hooks, 43.
[21] hooks, 52.
[22] hooks, 52.
[24] hooks, 84.
[25] hooks, 86.
[26] hooks, 108.
[27] hooks, 43.
[29] hooks, 34.
[30] hooks, 58.
[31] hooks, 14.
[32] hooks, 117.
Comments
Post a Comment