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Doing some reading of bell hooks, because it’s been a long time since I read Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, and because I have a few other books by her on hand that I’ve not yet read.
Hooks’ critique of second wave, white feminism, remains as trenchant today as it was when she first wrote about it in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Her analysis of the deadly flaws of liberal feminism - its focus on individual rights and achieving equality within the existing social and economic structure - has been borne out by the stalling of real progress on eliminating sexist and other forms of oppression over the last 30 years. As she notes in this foundational work, “The lack of any emphasis on domination is consistent with the liberal feminist belief that women can achieve equality with men of their class without challenging and changing the cultural basis of group oppression. It is this belief that negates the likelihood that the potential radicalism of liberal feminism will ever be realized.”
While some of her analysis is specific to the time, so much of what she writes here is still relevant, particularly when she looks at white liberal/bourgeois feminism and its failures to embrace a struggle against all forms of domination and oppression, settling for an increased degree of social and economic equality between white women and white men.
“Many feminist radicals now know that neither a feminism that focuses on woman as an autonomous human being worthy of personal freedom nor one that focuses on the attainment of equality of opportunity with men can rid society of sexism and male domination. Feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression. Therefore, it is necessarily a struggle to eradicate the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture on various levels as well as a commitment to reorganizing society so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desires.”
Hooks unabashedly connects oppression to capitalism, demanding that feminism address the structural inequalities that come from an exploitative economic system as well as the oppressions based in gender and race. She calls for a change in values, a new conception of power that does not include domination over others, and predicts - sadly, with pinpoint accuracy - that a feminism that seeks equality for women within the existing social and economic structure is a feminism that will fail.
“Before women can work to reconstruct society we must reject the notion that obtaining power in the existing social structure will necessarily advance feminist struggle to end sexist oppression. It may allow numbers of women to gain greater material privilege, control over their destiny, and the destiny of others, all of which are important goals. It will not end male domination as a system. The suggestion that women must obtain power before they can effectively resist sexism is rooted in the false assumption that women have no power. Women, even the most oppressed among us, do exercise some power. These powers can be used to advance feminist struggle. Forms of power held by exploited and oppressed groups are described in Elizabeth Janeway's important work Powers of the Weak. One of the most significant forms of power held by the weak is ‘the refusal to accept the definition of oneself that is put forward by the powerful.’ Janeway calls this the ‘ordered use of the power to disbelieve.’ “
Hooks also looks at the relationship between domination and violence, in the context of the home and family, in social interactions, and in imperialism and war. She reminds us that violence is not inherently male, rather, that a society in which men are assumed to be dominant over women leads to male violence against women, just as other firms of domination and oppression lead to white violence against people of colour, and imperialist violence against the nations of the global south.
In the end, hooks is reaching toward the future of the feminist movement in this treatise, examining the ways in which feminist movements had taken wrong turns, and looking at what would be needed to keep feminism vital and forward-moving as an ideology and as a movement.
“To move beyond the stage of feminist rebellion, to move past the impasse that characterizes contemporary feminist movement, women must recognize the need for reorganization. Without dismissing the positive dimensions of feminist movement up to this point, we need to accept that there was never a strategy on the part of feminist organizers and participants to build mass awareness of the need for feminist movement through political education. Such a strategy is needed if feminism is to be a political movement impacting on society as a whole in a revolutionary and transformative way. We also need to face the fact that many of the dilemmas facing feminist movement today were created by bourgeois women who shaped the movement in ways that served their opportunistic class interests. We must now work to change its direction so that women of all classes can see that their interest in ending sexist oppression is served by feminist movement.”
She continues: “To build a mass-based feminist movement, we need to have a liberatory ideology that can be shared with everyone. That revolutionary ideology can be created only if the experiences of people on the margin who suffer sexist oppression and other forms of group oppression are understood, addressed, and incorporated. They must participate in feminist movement as makers of theory and as leaders of action. In past feminist practice, we have been satisfied with relying on self-appointed individuals, some of whom are more concerned about exercising authority and power than with communicating with people from various backgrounds and political perspectives. Such individuals do not choose to learn about collective female experience, but impose their own ideas and values. Leaders are needed, and should be individuals who acknowledge their relationship to the group and who are accountable to it. They should have the ability to show love and compassion, show this love through their actions, and be able to engage in successful dialogue.”
Hooks’ critique of second wave, white feminism, remains as trenchant today as it was when she first wrote about it in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. Her analysis of the deadly flaws of liberal feminism - its focus on individual rights and achieving equality within the existing social and economic structure - has been borne out by the stalling of real progress on eliminating sexist and other forms of oppression over the last 30 years. As she notes in this foundational work, “The lack of any emphasis on domination is consistent with the liberal feminist belief that women can achieve equality with men of their class without challenging and changing the cultural basis of group oppression. It is this belief that negates the likelihood that the potential radicalism of liberal feminism will ever be realized.”
While some of her analysis is specific to the time, so much of what she writes here is still relevant, particularly when she looks at white liberal/bourgeois feminism and its failures to embrace a struggle against all forms of domination and oppression, settling for an increased degree of social and economic equality between white women and white men.
“Many feminist radicals now know that neither a feminism that focuses on woman as an autonomous human being worthy of personal freedom nor one that focuses on the attainment of equality of opportunity with men can rid society of sexism and male domination. Feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression. Therefore, it is necessarily a struggle to eradicate the ideology of domination that permeates Western culture on various levels as well as a commitment to reorganizing society so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism, economic expansion, and material desires.”
Hooks unabashedly connects oppression to capitalism, demanding that feminism address the structural inequalities that come from an exploitative economic system as well as the oppressions based in gender and race. She calls for a change in values, a new conception of power that does not include domination over others, and predicts - sadly, with pinpoint accuracy - that a feminism that seeks equality for women within the existing social and economic structure is a feminism that will fail.
“Before women can work to reconstruct society we must reject the notion that obtaining power in the existing social structure will necessarily advance feminist struggle to end sexist oppression. It may allow numbers of women to gain greater material privilege, control over their destiny, and the destiny of others, all of which are important goals. It will not end male domination as a system. The suggestion that women must obtain power before they can effectively resist sexism is rooted in the false assumption that women have no power. Women, even the most oppressed among us, do exercise some power. These powers can be used to advance feminist struggle. Forms of power held by exploited and oppressed groups are described in Elizabeth Janeway's important work Powers of the Weak. One of the most significant forms of power held by the weak is ‘the refusal to accept the definition of oneself that is put forward by the powerful.’ Janeway calls this the ‘ordered use of the power to disbelieve.’ “
Hooks also looks at the relationship between domination and violence, in the context of the home and family, in social interactions, and in imperialism and war. She reminds us that violence is not inherently male, rather, that a society in which men are assumed to be dominant over women leads to male violence against women, just as other firms of domination and oppression lead to white violence against people of colour, and imperialist violence against the nations of the global south.
In the end, hooks is reaching toward the future of the feminist movement in this treatise, examining the ways in which feminist movements had taken wrong turns, and looking at what would be needed to keep feminism vital and forward-moving as an ideology and as a movement.
“To move beyond the stage of feminist rebellion, to move past the impasse that characterizes contemporary feminist movement, women must recognize the need for reorganization. Without dismissing the positive dimensions of feminist movement up to this point, we need to accept that there was never a strategy on the part of feminist organizers and participants to build mass awareness of the need for feminist movement through political education. Such a strategy is needed if feminism is to be a political movement impacting on society as a whole in a revolutionary and transformative way. We also need to face the fact that many of the dilemmas facing feminist movement today were created by bourgeois women who shaped the movement in ways that served their opportunistic class interests. We must now work to change its direction so that women of all classes can see that their interest in ending sexist oppression is served by feminist movement.”
She continues: “To build a mass-based feminist movement, we need to have a liberatory ideology that can be shared with everyone. That revolutionary ideology can be created only if the experiences of people on the margin who suffer sexist oppression and other forms of group oppression are understood, addressed, and incorporated. They must participate in feminist movement as makers of theory and as leaders of action. In past feminist practice, we have been satisfied with relying on self-appointed individuals, some of whom are more concerned about exercising authority and power than with communicating with people from various backgrounds and political perspectives. Such individuals do not choose to learn about collective female experience, but impose their own ideas and values. Leaders are needed, and should be individuals who acknowledge their relationship to the group and who are accountable to it. They should have the ability to show love and compassion, show this love through their actions, and be able to engage in successful dialogue.”
