The biggest challenge faced by feminists today concerns why the world and values envisioned by western Feminism continue to remain elusive despite nearly two centuries of struggle. Emerging from the embers of the Second Wave in the 1980s, bell hooks was one of the first to answer this question by bringing to attention the hitherto exclusionary nature of the movement and its limited focus on white women from middle-class backgrounds. Published in 1984—five years before the term 'intersectionality...

I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in feminism or anyone who currently identifies as a feminist but hasn't yet read this. hooks has a very accessible writing style and does an impeccable job of pointing out the flaws in the feminist movement and putting forth ideas of what feminism as a movement should be if it has any hope of success.

bell hooks is generally great, and this books has many strong points. Nonetheless, other parts left a bad taste in my mouth, but I think that might be the point. hooks didn't set out to write an authoritative manifesto on what feminism is or should be for all time; in fact, she explicitly set out to challenge such dogmatism.That said, this is still worth a quick read; much of it is still very relevant, and while it's limited and dated in other parts it offers many generative passages that helped...

Whoa, bell hooks is one pissed-off lady! It'd be a lot more effective, or at least less of a rodomontade, if she developed a self-consistent philosophy. On the plus side, I'm hoping that developing fluency with this half-cocked nonsense on a lonely plane ride back in 2003 will someday help me find the chinks in some attractive sociology major's psychosexual armor, allowing a cheerful ejaculation of "I blinded her....with bell hooks!" to the unforgettable tune of Thomas Dolby's classic.

This is a difficult book to read if you are a white feminist because it requires you to do one of three things.1) Condemn bell hooks and stop reading (no, don’t do this)2) Rationalize: yes, bell hooks is right about this, but that’s the other white feminists, that’s not me. I am an ally. In fact, I am Saint Ally and nobody could ever say that I really fit into this stereotype of white feminists she is describing (slightly less bad, because it has more potential for growth, but don’t do this eith...

I just finished this book, and I found it challenging (in the sense that it challenges some generally accepted notions) and very thoughtful and well-written. She argues that mainstream feminism, which has been dominated by middle and upper-class white women, has not opened its doors adequately to non-white and working class women. she argues that part of the reason the movement has failed is because there has been an internalization of the sexist oppression paradigm by the leaders of the feminis...

more bell hooks brilliance as usual. written in 84, this one criticizes the (white-dominated) feminist movement of the time, and provides another important stepping stone from the Second Wave to the Third Wave of Feminism.also includes brilliant sections like this passage from page 121:"Patriarchal male rule took on an entirely different character in the context of advanced capitalist society... As workers, most men in our culture (like working women) are controlled, dominated. Unlike working wo...

This was a concise yet deep take on many issues related to feminism and its shortcomings that mostly felt like it was written today rather than the 1980s. I particularly loved hooks' take on how our society views power, and how changing that perception is a vital feminist project. hooks also does an incredible job of synthesizing complex issues, holding multiple views that have some truths to them in tension with each other at the same time, and refusing to promote solutions that "throw the baby...

Incredible book. Examines the issues around women liberation through the lens of race, class, and gender, and shows in amazing detail how ignoring just one of these would diminish the possibilities of the entire movement. One thing that I am absolutely reveling in is the way how bell hooks advocates for wholeness, how its not men who are the enemy but the whole capitalistic ethos that puts aggressive competition as its ultimate ideal. How even women can be oppressors, in family, at work, and on

Another iconic feminist text from bell hooks. I love that hooks’s writing always takes mainstream feminist thinking and elevates it. She encourages us to deeply consider how racism and classism intersect with sexism to further marginalize women of color and poor women. She argues that we should conceptualize feminism as a radical, revolutionary movement as opposed to an individual lifestyle. Her writing, while intelligent and replete with critical analysis, remains accessible and close to the hu...

Reading this book immediately following hooks' first book, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism reveals how much a writer and theorist can develop in just a few years. Where Ain't I a Woman suffered because of underdeveloped points and undertheorized intersections of class with race and gender, Feminist Theory from Margin to Center shines. Hooks here works to re-define feminism in a way that opens up the movement to women and men of all race and class backgrounds and allows feminism to work...

"the shift in expression from 'i am a feminist' to 'i advocate feminism' could serve as a useful strategy for eliminating the focus on identity and lifestyle. It could serve as a way in which women who are concerned about feminism as well as other political movements could express their support while avoiding linguistic structures that give primacy to one particular group. it would also encourage greater explorations in feminist theory.""women will know that white feminist activists have begun t...

‘A central problem with feminist discourse has been our inability to arrive at a consensus of opinion on what feminism actually is. Without agreed upon definitions we lack a sound foundation on which to construct theory or engage in overall meaningful praxis.’

When I started reading this book, it was tough for me to get through even the first few pages. The scathing criticism of feminist movements left me uncomfortable, which is the exact point of this book. While it did so, it also made me take a hard look at how I advocate for feminism, and made me aware of how privilege has shaped feminism. bell hooks reviews the movement in a very harsh light, but in a way that will allow feminism to grow more diverse. While the book addresses the downfalls of pri...

bell hooks kicked open the door, and said that feminism was pretty much available in only one flavor, making it difficult, if not impossible, for women of other races and classes to join in. Feminism lacked diversity (barring lip service) because it didn't accommodate all women. It did not hear or see women whose lives did not mirror those of middle or upper class, college-educated Caucasian women. Then she broke down the next door and declared that no one even knew what Feminism was. It's not b...

v much respect this as a commentary on the trajectory of feminist thought & action from the sixties to the eighties, and a starting point fr theorists & activists to interrogate their relationships to feminism, to structures of power & dominance, to labour and consumption and culture, to each other and to women excluded from or alienated by feminism. it is, in places, tied to its historical moment & particular vantage point -- fr me the chapter on sexual oppression, specifically its treatment of...

It's difficult to address anything she's written without landing on the problem of her nom de plume, which she says:[...] honors her mother and her grandmother. Her name is always seen written in lowercase letters because she believes that what is most important is the "substance of [my] books, not who I am."The irony being, of course, that this only draws more attention to the author instead of the content of her writings; the insistence on the minuscule case can easily be seen pretentious post...

Although this book presented a critical challenge to feminist orthodoxy at the time it was published, it has ironically become the contemporary feminist party line. There are some aspects of this book I find praiseworthy and other elements I find problematic, but regardless of which arguments fall in which categories, I think today's feminists would do well to take up hooks's call to continually re-evaluate whatever the hegemonic consensus of the day is.On the positive side, hooks is excellent a...

In my opinion, this book is remarkable in the way that it forces the reader to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths about how we truly feel and see one another. Some of this is so ingrained in us that we aren’t even aware of it. To effectively battle these deeply held assumptions, we first need to acknowledge them and recognize that they are incorrect. Only then can we truly accept one another and ensure full inclusion in any meaningful way. How can we strive for equality, if we aren’t first ho...

"It is the absence of feminist theory that addresses margin and center that had led me to write this book."Essential reading by Bell Hooks! Honestly a pioneer in intersectional feminist reading.