40 pages • 1 hour read
bell hooksA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
bell hooks argues against 19the 80’s mainstream feminist movements’ attacks on family life. Feminist leaders were primarily wealthy, privileged, and highly educated white women who argued that liberation from sexist oppression could be achieved by entering the workforce and becoming financially independent from the men in their lives. hooks counters that this inadvertently creates tension in the economy and job market by reducing the number of jobs available to marginalized men and women, and it ignores the economic and social realities of women who have always had to support their families through work.
In the text, family is a complicated site of power. hooks criticizes the family dynamics of Western societies, particularly in the United States, by arguing that “sexist oppression perverts and distorts the positive function of family” (38). Because families replicate patriarchal systems of power, they lose the support and love that family units can provide. Nevertheless, hooks points out that “many black women find the family the least oppressive institution” (38) precisely because Black families emphasize community, self-worth, and support. If the feminist movement can reform the common conception of families as patriarchal and indebted to power structures (in that a husband has absolute power over his wife, and parents have absolute power over their children), then it can build a more inclusive community.
By bell hooks
Ain't I A Woman
Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism
bell hooks
All about Love
All about Love: Love Song to the Nation Book 1
bell hooks
Feminism Is For Everybody
Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
bell hooks
Killing Rage
Killing Rage: Ending Racism
bell hooks
Salvation: Black People And Love
Salvation: Black People And Love
bell hooks
Teaching Critical Thinking
Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom
bell hooks
Teaching to Transgress
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
bell hooks
The Will to Change
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
bell hooks
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection