bell hooks

Gloria Jean Watkins was born on September 25, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. She decided to use the pen name of bell hooks because it was her great-grandmothers name. Her great-grandmother was known for speaking her mind, and I believe Gloria wanted to pay homage to her and follow in her footsteps. She does not capitalize her name so people know they are two different people. She was a passionate reader and received her education from a racially segregated school. She was one of seven siblings living off their father's paycheck as a custodian. 

bell graduated with a bachelors degree in English from Standford University. She received a masters in English from the University of Wisconsin and she obtained her doctorate in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She founded the bell hooks Institute in 2014. 

hooks is an author and a feminist who fights for social, racial and gender equality. She has published more than three dozen books with the contents ranging from race, class, media and much more. bell's most famous work of writing is,  Ain't I a Women?: black women and feminism was written in 1981.

I've included a link to smile.amazon.com if anyone is interested in buying the book or looking through the first few pages. 

In this book, hooks touches on a multitude of issues concerning black women. Specifically the oppression of these women in the areas of race, sex and class. In the journal article Review:Black Women and Feminism: Two Reviews,  she calls this book a "love gift from me to black women." This book focuses on the historical perspective of black women from the time of slavery until now. hooks began this book when she was 19 years old while working on her undergraduate degree. She decided to take the specific route of black women because of the lack of education on this group of people in classrooms and textbooks. 

In this book, she adopts a ground breaking viewpoint on slavery and black women. Most scholarly works emphasize the oppression of male slaves, but lack to touch on the effects on slave women. bell argues that slavery not only oppressed black women, but defeminized them. She pushes for more understanding of the sexual exploitation of black women during slavery. 

In the journal article Review:Black Women and Feminism: Two Reviews, racism in regards to feminism of black women is touched on in hooks point of view. hooks explains where the two concepts meet in history. The feminist movement began to lose their support for the black community when white women realized that white men were ok with allowing black men to vote while white women didn't have that privilege. White women were not ok with "inferior" blacks having the right to vote over "superior" white women. So male solidarity began to form between the two races, while black women were left out of the equation all together. 

In the same article, hooks concludes that historically in the workplace, black women were shown extreme racism as well. In the jobs that they held after the era of slavery, included separate wash rooms and work rooms so the white women could work without them around. hooks takes an overall stand that throughout history, black women were neglected in every way when looking at social movements. 

One of bell's goal regarding feminism and black women is to bring attention to this group of people in the mainstream media. She was especially baffled of the lack of education in women's studies classes about black women. She points out that the feminists movements exclusively were geared toward white, middle class, educated women. In the article Education as a Practice of Freedom: Reflections on bell hooks, it is said that bell challenges feminists and says there is no solidarity between different races and different social classes. She believes that the new wave of feminism is set up to pit women against other women and compete with one another. She criticizes men in saying that in order for the end of oppression of women, men also need to help and encourage change and the opposition of sexism. 

Throughout her life, hooks has held lectures to further her fight for feminism, especially for black people. The clip below is a small portion of her lecture, Moving from Pain to Power. 

bell hooks is a vital feminist in today's modern world. Even though there have been many strides and accomplishments for the equality of women in our society throughout history, she makes it clear that black women have been neglected in that conversation. bell inspires me because she fights for a minority in an already oppressed group of people. Feminism is a fight everyone should take place in, and bell brings light to a group of women who need better representation in mass media and education. She fights for people who need someone to start the conversation. 

Works cited: 

"bell hooks." wikipedia.org. n.p, n.d. Sun. 17 Sep. 2017. 

"about the bell hooks institute" bellhooksinstitute.com n.p, n.d. Sun. 17 Sep. 2017. 

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Ikerionwu, Maria K. Mootry. "Review: Black Women and Feminism: Two Reviews." Phylon, vol. 44, 1983, pg 84-86. JSTOR. Sun. 17 Sep. 2017. 

Specia, Akello. Osman, Ahmed A. "Education as a Practice of Freedom: Reflections on bell hooks." Journal of Education and Practice, vol. 6, 2015, pg 195-197. International Knowledge Sharing Platform. Sun. 17 Sep. 2017.