Discussion 1
Raciel1990
bellhooksfeminismisforeverybody.pdf
10. RACE AND GENDER
11. ENDING VIOLENCE
12. FEMINIST MASCULINITY
13. FEMINIST PARENTING
14. LIBERATING MARRIAGE AND P AR.TNERSHIP
15. A FEMINIST SEXUAL POLITIC An Ethics ofMutual Freedom
16. TOTAL BLISS Lesbianism and Feminism
17. TO LOVE AGAIN The Heart of Feminism
18. FEMINIST SPIRITUALITY
19. VISIONARY FEMINISM
INDEX
ABOUT SOUTH END PRESS
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INTRODUCTION Come Closer to Feminism
Everywhere I go I proudly tell folks who want to know who I am
and what I do that I am a writer, a feminist theorist, a cultural critic. I
tell them I write about movies and popular culture, analyzing the
message in the medium. Most people find this exciting and want to
know more. Everyone goes to movies, watches television, glances
through magazines, and everyone has thoughts about the messages
they receive, about the images they look at. It is easy for the diverse
public I encounter to understand what I do as a cultural critic, to un
derstand my passion for writing Qots of folks want to write, and do).
But feminist theory- that's the place where the questions stop. In
stead I tend to hear all about the evil of feminism and the bad femi
nists: how "they" hate men; how "they" want to go against nature -
and god; how "they" are all lesbians; how "they" are taking all the jobs
and making the world hard for white men, who do not stand a chance.
When I ask these same folks about the feminist books or maga
zines they read, when I ask them about the feminist talks they have
heard, about the feminist activists they know, they respond by let
ting me know that everything they know about feminism has come
into their lives thirdhand, that they really have not come close
enough to feminist movement to know what really happens, what
it's really about. Mostly they think feminism is a bunch of angry
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women who want to be like men. They do not even think about
feminism as being about rights - about women gaining equal
rights. When I talk about the feminism I know - up close and per
sonal - they willingly listen, although when our conversations end,
they are quick to tell me I am different, not like the "real" feminists
who hate men, who are angry. I assure them I am as a real and as rad
ical a feminist as one can be, and if they dare to come closer to femi
nism they will see it is not how they have imagined it.
ii Each time I leave one of these encounters, I want to have in my ,: hand a little book so that I can say, read this book, and it will tell you it ! what feminism is, what the movement is about. I want to be holding i i in my hand a concise, fairly easy to read and understand book; not a i
long book, not a book thick with hard to understand jargon and aca
demic language, but a straightforward, clear book - easy to read
without being simplistic. From the moment feminist thinking, poli
tics, and practice changed my life, I have wanted this book. I have
wanted to give it to the folk I love so that they can understand better
this cause, this feminist politics I believe in so deeply, that is the
foundation of my political life.
I have wanted them to have an answer to the question "what is
feminism?" that is rooted neither in fear or fantasy. I have wanted
them to have this simple definition to read again and again so they
know: "Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation,
and oppression." I love this definition, which I first offered more
than 10 years ago in my book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. I
love it because it so clearly states that the movement is not about be
ing anti-male. It makes it clear that the problem is sexism. And that
clarity helps us remember that all of us, female and male, have been
socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought and action. As a
consequence, females can be just as sexist as men. And while that .
does not excuse or justify male domination, it does mean that it
INTRODUCTION
would be naive and wrongminded for feminist thinkers to see the
movement as simplistically being for women against men. To end
patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we
need to be clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism
until we change our minds and hearts, until we let go of sexist
thought and action and replace it with feminist thought and action.
Males as a group have and do benefit: the most from patriarchy,
from the assumption that they are superior to females and should
rule over us. But those benefits have come with a price. In return for
all the goodies men receive from patriarchy, they are required to
dominate women, to exploit and oppress us, using violence if they
must to keep patriarchy intact. Most men find it difficult to be patri
archs. Most men are disturbed by hatred and fear ofwomen, by male
violence against women, even the men who perpetuate this vio
lence. But they fear letting go of the benefits. They are not certain
what will happen to the world they know most intimately if patriar
chy changes. So they find it easier to passively support male domina
tion even when they know in their minds and hearts that it is wrong.
Again and again men tell me they have no idea what it is feminists
want. I believe them. I believe in their capacity to change and grow.
And I believe that if they knew more about feminism they would no
longer fear it, for they would find in feminist movement the hope of
their own release from the bondage of patriarchy.
It is for these men, young and old, and for all of us, that I have
written this short handbook, the book I have spent more than 20
years longing for. I had to write it because I kept waiting for it to ap
pear, and it did not. And without it there was no way to address the
hordes of people in this nation who are daily bombarded with
anti-feminist backlash, who are being told to hate and resist a move
ment that they know very little about. There should be so many little
feminist primers, easy to read pamphlets and books, telling us all
X FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY
about feminism, that this book would be just another passionate
voice speaking out ori behalf of feminist politics. There should be bill
boards; ads in magazines; ads on buses, subways, trains; television
commercials spreading the word, letting the world know more about
feminism. We are not there yet. But this is what we must do to share
feminism, to let the movement into everyone's mind and heart.
Feminist change has already touched all our lives in a positive way.
And yet we lose sight of the positive when all we hear about femi
nism is negative.
When I began to resist male domination, to rebel against patri
archal thinking (and to oppose the strongest patriarchal voice in my
life - my mother's voice), I was still a teenager, suicidal, depressed,
uncertain about how I would find meaning in my life and a place for
myself. I needed feminism to give me a foundation of equality and
justice to stand on. Mama has come around to feminist thinking. She
sees me and all her daughters (we are six) living better lives because of
feminist politics. She sees the promise and hope in feminist move
ment. It is that promise and hope that I want to share with you in
this book, with everybody.
Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where
females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vi
sion ofmutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction. Imagine living
in a world where we can all be who we are, a world ofpeace and pos
sibility. Feminist revolution alone will not create such a world; we
need to end racism, class elitism, imperialism. But it will make it possi
ble for us to be fully self-actualized females and males able to create
beloved community, to live together, realizing our dreams of freedom
and justice, living the truth that we are all "created equal." Come
closer. See how feminism can touch and change your life and all our
lives. Come closer and know firsthand what feminist movement is all
about. Come closer and you will see: feminism is for everybody.
1
FEMINIST POLITICS Where We Stand
Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploita
tion, and oppression. This was a definition of feminism I offered in
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center more than 10 years ago. It was
my hope at the time that it would become a common definition
everyone would use. I liked this definition because it did not imply
that men were the enemy. By naming sexism as the problem it went
directly to the heart of the matter. Practically, it is a definition which
implies that all sexist thinking and action is the problem, whether
those who perpetuate it are female or male, child or adult. It is also
broad enough to include an understanding of systemic institutional
ized sexism. As a definition it is open-ended. To understand femi
nism it implies one has to necessarily understand sexism.
As all advocates of feminist politics know, most people do not
understand sexism, or if they do, they think it is not a problem.
Masses of people think that feminism is always and only about
women seeking to be equal to men. And a huge majority of these
folks think feminism is anti-male. Their misunderstanding of femi
nist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism
from patriarchal mass media. The feminism they hear about the
most is portrayed by women who are primarily committed to gender
equality - equal pay for equal work, and sometimes women and
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men sharing household chores and parenting. They see that these
women are usually white and materially privileged. They know from
mass media that women's liberation focuses on the freedom to have
abortions, to be lesbians, to challenge rape and domestic violence.
Among these issues, masses of people agree with the idea of gender
equity in the workplace - equal pay for equal work.
Since our society continues to be primarily a "Christian" cul
ture, masses of people continue to believe that god has ordained that
women be subordinate to men in the domestic household. Even
though masses ofwomen have entered the workforce, even though
many families are headed by women who are the sole breadwinners,
the vision of domestic life which continues to dominate the nation's
imagination is one in which the logic of male domination is intact,
whether men are present in the home or not. The wrongminded no
tion of feminist movement which implied it was anti-male carried
with it the wrongminded assumption that all female space would
necessarily be an environment where patriarchy and sexist thinking
would be absent. Many women, even those involved in feminist pol
itics, chose to believe this as well.
There was indeed a great deal of anti-male sentiment among
early feminist activists who were responding to male domination
with anger. It was that anger at injustice that was the impetus for cre
ating a women's liberation movement. Early on most feminist activ
ists (a majority ofwhom were white) had their consciousness raised
about the nature of male domination when they were working in
anti-classist and anti-racist settings with men who were telling the
world about the importance of freedom while subordinating the
women in their ranks. Whether it was white women working on be
half of socialism, black women working on behalf of civil rights and
black liberation, or Native American women working for indige
nous rights, it was clear that men wanted to lead, and they wanted
FEMINIST POLITICS
women to follow. Participating in these radical freedom struggles
awakened the spirit of rebellion and resistance in progressive fe
males and led them towards contemporary women's liberation.
As contemporary feminism progressed, as women realized that
males were not the only group in our society who supported sexist
thinking and behavior - that females could be sexist as well -
anti-male sentiment no longer shaped the movement's conscious
ness. The focus shifted to an all-out effort to create gender justice.
But women could not band together to further feminism without
confronting our sexist thinking. Sisterhood could not be powerful
as long as women were competitively at war with one another. Uto
pian visions of sisterhood based solely on the awareness of the real
ity that all women were in some way victimized by male domination
were disrupted by discussions of class and race. Discussions of class
differences occurred early on in contemporary feminism, preceding
discussions of race. Diana Press published revolutionary insights
about class divisions between women as early as the mid-'70s in their
collection of essays Class and Feminism. These discussions did not
trivialize the feminist insistence that "sisterhood is powerful," they
simply emphasized that we could only become sisters in struggle by
confronting the ways women - through sex, class, and race -
dominated and exploited other women, and created a political plat
form that would address these differences.
Even though individual black women were active in contempo
rary feminist movement from its inception, they were not the indi
viduals who became the "stars" of the movement, who attracted the
attention of mass media. Often individual black women active in
feminist movement were revolutionary feminists (like many white
lesbians). They were already at odds with reformist feminists who
resolutely wanted to project a vision of the movement as being
solely about women gaining equality with men in the existing sys-
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tern. Even before race became a talked about issue in feminist circles
it was clear to black women (and to their revolutionary allies in
struggle) that they were never going to have equality within the exist
ing white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
From its earliest inception feminist movement was polarized.
Reformist thinkers chose to emphasize gender equality. Revolution
ary thinkers did not want simply to alter the existing system so that
women would have more rights. We wanted to transform that sys
tem, to bring an end to patriarchy and sexism. Since patriarchal mass
media was not interested in the more revolutionary vision, it never
received attention in mainstream press. The vision of"women's lib
eration" which captured and still holds the public imagination was
the one representing women as wanting what men had. And this was
the vision that was easier to realize. Changes in our nation's econ
omy, economic depression, the loss of jobs, etc., made the climate
ripe for our nation's citizens to accept the notion of gender equality
in the workforce.
Given the reality of racism, it made sense that white men were
more willing to consider women's rights when the granting of those
rights could serve the interests of maintaining white supremacy. We
can never forget that white women began to assert their need for
freedom after civil rights, just at the point when racial discrimination
was ending and black people, especially black males, might have at
tained equality in the workforce with white men. Reformist feminist
thinking focusing primarily on equality with men in the workforce
overshadowed the original radical foundations of contemporary
feminism which called for reform as well as overall restructuring of
society so that our nation would be fundamentally anti-sexist.
Most women, especially privileged white women, ceased even
to consider revolutionary feminist visions, once they began to gain
economic power within the existing social structure. Ironically, rev-
FEMINIST POLITICS
olutionary feminist thinking was most accepted and embraced in
academic circles. In those circles the production of revolutionary
feminist theory progressed, but more often than not that theory was
not made available to the public. It became and remains a privileged
discourse available to those among us who are highly literate, well
educated, and usually materially privileged. Works like Feminist The
ory: From Margin to Center that offer a liberatory vision of feminist
transformation never receive mainstream attention. Masses of peo
ple have not heard of this book. They have not rejected its message;
they do not know what the message is.
While it was in the interest of mainstream white supremacist
capitalist patriarchy to suppress visionary feminist thinking which
was not anti-male or concerned with getting women the right to be
like men, reformist feminists were also eager to silence these forces.
Reformist feminism became their route to class mobility. They
could break free of male domination in the workforce and be more
self-determining in their lifestyles. While sexism did not end, they
could maximize their freedom within the existing system. And they
could count on there being a lower class of exploited subordinated
women to do the dirty work they were refusing to do. By accepting
and indeed colluding with the subordination of working-class and
poor women, they not only ally themselves with the existing patriar
chy and its concomitant sexism, they give themselves the right to lead
a double life, one where they are the equals of men in the workforce
and at home when they want to be. If they choose lesbianism they
have the privilege of being equals with men in the workforce while
using class power to create domestic lifestyles where they can
choose to have little or no contact with men.
Lifestyle feminism ushered in the notion that there could be as
many versions of feminism as there were women. Suddenly the politics
was being slowly removed from feminism. And the assumption pre-
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vailed that no matter what a woman's politics, be she conservative
or liberal, she too could fit feminism into her existing lifestyle. Obvi
ously this way of thinking has made feminism more acceptable be
cause its underlying assumption is that women can be feminists
without fundamentally challenging and changing themselves or the
culture. For example, let's take the issue ofabortion. If feminism is a
movement to end sexist oppression, and depriving females ofrepro 11 ductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot beI I 11 , anti-choice and be feminist. A woman can insist she would never
choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right
ofwomen to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics. She
cannot be anti-abortion and an advocate of feminism. Concurrently
there can be no such thing as "power feminism" if the vision of
power evoked is power gained through the exploitation and oppres
sion of others.
Feminist politics is losing momentum because feminist move
ment has lost clear definitions. We have those definitions. Let's re
claim them. Let's share them. Let's start over. Let's have T-shirts and
bumper stickers and postcards and hip-hop music, television and ra
dio commercials, ads everywhere and billboards, and all manner of
printed material that tells the world about feminism. We can share the
simple yet powerful message that feminism is a movement to end sex
ist oppression. Let's start there. Let the movement begin again.
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CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING A Constant Change of Heart
Feminists are made, not born. One does not become an advocate of
feminist politics simply by having the privilege of having been born
female. Like all political positions one becomes a believer in feminist
politics through choice and action. When women first organized in
groups to talk together about the issue of sexism and male domina
tion, they were clear that females were as socialized to believe sexist
thinking and values as males, the difference being simply that males
benefited from sexism more than females and were as a conse
quence less likely to want to surrender patriarchal privilege. Before
women could change patriarchy we had to change ourselves; we had
to raise our consciousness.
Revolutionary feminist consciousness-raising emphasized the
importance of learning about patriarchy as a system of domination,
how it became institutionalized and how it is perpetuated and main
tained. Understanding the way male domination and sexism was ex
pressed in everyday life created awareness in women of the ways we
were victimized, exploited, and, in worse case scenarios, oppressed.
Early on in contemporary feminist movement, consciousness-raising
groups often became settings where women simply unleashed pent
up hostility and rage about being victimized, with little or no focus
on strategies of intervention and transformation. On a basic level
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