Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Language: English

Pages: 182

ISBN: 0896086135

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


An Interview with bell hooks, author of Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

SOUTH END PRESS: Your work on radical black feminism has been an inspiration for many young feminists of color, and you yourself were in your early 20s when you wrote your first book, Ain't I a Woman. What differences do you see in the political and cultural climate that young progressive activists face today, compared to when you were formulating your own politics?

BELL HOOKS: One of the major differences I see in the political climate today is that there is less collective support for coming to critical consciousness-in communities, in institutions, among friends. For example, when I was coming to feminist consciousness-as one aspect of my political consciousness-at Stanford University, there was a tremendous buzz about feminism throughout the campus. Women were organizing in the dorms, women were resisting biased curriculum, all of those things. So, it really offered a kind of overall support for coming to consciousness, whereas what so frequently happens now in academic settings is that people feel much more that they don't have this kind of collective support.

SEP: What do you think has contributed to that change?

BH: The institutionalization of Black Studies, Feminist Studies, all of these things led to a sense that the struggle was over for a lot of people and that one did not have to continue the personal consciousness-raising and changing of one's viewpoint.

SEP: Could you describe some of the influences on your own politicization? In your writing you have focused very much on your development as a woman, as a writer, and as a critic and political thinker. Could you describe that process?

BH: One of the issues that I continually write about is that the words we use to define political positions-whether we talk about being on the left or being feminist-do not mean that people may not have arrived at positions of resistance that could be clearly described by that language before they come to that language. In my case, I've talked a great deal about how growing up in a very patriarchal household was the setting for my development of resistance. But it was not until the organi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

resistance and change. It may have encouraged bonding with other women to raise consciousness. It 34 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FEMINIST MOVEMENT 35 did not strengthen public understanding of the significance of au­ thentic feminist movement. Sexist discrimination, exploitation, and oppression have created the war between the sexes. Traditionally the battleground has been the home. In recent years, the battle ensues in any sphere, public or private, inhabited by women and men, girls and boys. The

black women were quick to react to the feminist call for Sisterhood by pointing to the contradic­ tion-that we should join with women who exploit us to help liber- SISTERHOOD 51 ate them. The call for Sisterhood was heard by many black women as a plea for help and support for a movement that did not address us. As Toni Morrison explains in her article ''What the Black Woman Thinks about Women's Lib," many black women do not re­ spect bourgeois white women and could not imagine supporting a

unlearn racist socialization. Many white wom en who daily exer­ cise race privilege lack awareness that they are doing so (which ex­ plains the emphasis on confession in unlearning racism workshops). They may no t have conscious understanding o f the ideology o f white supremacy and the extent to which it shapes their behavior and attitudes towards wom en unlike themselves. O ften, white wom en bond on the basis o f shared racial identity w ithout con­ scious awareness o f the significance o f

masculinity— such thoughts lead them to see that abuse is un­ derstandable, even justified. The vast majority o f black w om en think that just publicly stating that these m en are the enemy or identifying them as oppressors would do litde to change the situation; they fear it could simply lead to greater victimization. Nam ing oppressive re­ alities, in and o f itself, has not brought about the kinds o f changes for oppressed groups that it can for more privileged groups, who com m and a

of any commodification of the sex­ ual, removed from any of the violence and alienation of circulation and exchange as a sexual identity, the identity of a sex, being fixed to this or that image, this or that norm, to this thing "sexuality." Though labeled "heterosexual," many women in this society feel lit­ tle sexual desire for men because of the politics of sexual oppres­ sion; male domination destroys and perverts that desire. It is the enormity of acts of sexual oppression imposed on women

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