During the late 20th century, after the two world wars, movements like the Civil Rights which gave rise to the Feminist Movement came into momentum. Many female activists, theorists, authors, socialists like Naomi Wolf – Outrages (2019), Simone de Beauvoir – The Second Sex (1949), Kate Millet – The Basement highlighted many social issues back then which are relevant even today.
A queer feminist, socio-cultural critic, and intellectual scholar of the past couple of decades, Gloria Jean Watkins, better known as Bell Hooks has published more than 30 books. Her works have reflected social issues like race, gender, class oppression, etc. Her works include poems, children’s books like Skin Again (2004), memoirs like Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood (1996), and essays – Killing Rage (1995). She has made appearances in a couple of documentaries like Bell Hooks Cultural Criticism & Transformation (1997) too. Being a Black American, she herself faced racism while studying in a racially segregated public school for a period of time.
In 2014, Bell Hooks Institute was established in Berea College, Kentucky where hooks used to teach in the latter part of her life. Hooks actively participated in various debates and engaged with local activists. She has taught at a couple of educational institutions like Stanford University, Yale University, and The City College of New York. Her writings have been translated into 15 languages. She has received American book awards for Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics (1990) and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for her 1999 children’s book Happy to Be Nappy. She also has been the TIME 100 Women of the Year, 2020.
In America, the late 90s was the period of white – supremacist – capitalist patriarchy. Slavery existed in America since the American Revolution. Black women during slavery were either sexual objects or a figure who devotes all their time to the master’s family. During slavery, black females faced misogyny along with sexual, physical, and mental abuse by the oppressors. The first major groundbreaking work by Hook – Ain’t I A Women: Black Women and Feminism (1981) revolves around sexism, racism, and feminism. The title – is from Sojourner Truth – abolitionist and women’s rights activist’s 1851 speech. This book is a huge contribution to postmodern feminism. She discussed black women facing sexism and racism during slavery and the contemporary period. These females had the lowest position in American society. Bell Hook discusses how The Feminist Movement was just for the whites and the upper class or The Civil Rights Movement was sexist and patriarchal. Ain’t I A Women provides a radical analysis of how black women have been always marginalized, overlooked, and excluded while talking about women’s feminism. When we talk about the history of feminism, it just focuses on white women. It shows us how deeply rooted racism is in our society and the role of black women, black men, and white women and white men. These black women are the puppets of capitalism. Feminism needs to be more intersexual.
“[Our] struggle for liberation has significance only if it takes place within a feminist movement that has as its fundamental goal the liberation of all people.”
― Bell Hooks, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism
Besides, Black females and feminism, Hook discusses about black men and masculinity in We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (2003) which is a collection of ten essays. The title is from Gwendolyn Brooks – poet, author, and teacher’s 1959 poem – We Real Cool. She states that some of the black power movements attracted patriarchal masculinity which is the culprit for Black Lives Matter (2013). She has provided cultural criticism and solutions to the problems she identifies. The black males are forced to repress in the white society. They have not been allowed to develop wholly. Bell talks about popular culture, education, love, and parenting and discusses ways patriarchy is socialized into our minds and ways we can transcend and begin to heal. She approaches black masculinity from the feminist point of view where she explains that patriarchal masculinity jeopardizes the black community’s growth and restricts progress in the fight against oppression. Both the books – Ain’t I A Woman and We Real Cool have their title borrowed from the works that shaped the black community before her.
“At the center of the way black male selfhood is constructed in white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy is the image of the brute
—untamed, uncivilized, unthinking, and unfeeling.”
― Bell Hooks, We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity
There have been many feminist theories in the past. In general, Feminism means there should equality of sexes on the grounds of political, economic, and social. Feminism back then favored only the whites. The feminists during the Feminist Movement, majorly believed that feminism is about favoring women or hating men. Hooks states that unless women do not acknowledge that both genders are responsible for today’s societal circumstances, feminism cannot be successful. Unless people don’t love each other which is impossible if the individual doesn’t love themselves thoroughly. All the oppression in society has the concept of love absent in them. Bell’s feminist theory is about ending oppression and maintaining power.
Bell Hooks died last year at the age of 69. She is one of the few writers who has explored intersexuality in depth. Her work addresses love, race, intersexuality, class gender, feminism, capitalism, and gender. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Paulo Freire, etc have influenced Gloria Watkins. With her postmodern perspective and as a radical feminist, she points out that the system is itself corrupt and to attain complete liberation and equality in such a system is impossible. In most of her works, she uses the term ‘Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy’ which describes the United States political system. She believes that ‘power is not for domination, but to end oppression.’ Also, defines ‘feminism as a movement to end sexist oppression.’
-By Khushi Shah
