Curation and Discussion

Thick and Other Essays 1-6

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Thick:

The first essay starts with a story about Tessie Mcmillan Cottom and she discusses how a man had said to her “Your hair thick, your nose thick, your lips thick, the whole thing about just thick” (p. 7). She mentions how people have always made her feel as if she was too much and that she should have been a thing or have less of everything. She mentions how this more so happened with white people and for a long time she tried to change the way she looked. She then decided to stop changing how she looked, which she believed truly helped her express herself through her writing.

In the Name of Beauty:

In this essay, Mcmillan Cottom discusses what it means to be “beautiful.” She emphasizes on how black women are usually thought of less beautiful than white women. In this section of the book, she discusses beauty standards and how in sixth grade her white teacher told her, her breast were distracting (p. 41). She elaborates how white women have an advantage because society views their bodies and looks as ideal. She states “beauty isn’t actually what you look like; beauty is the preferences that produce the existing social” (p. 45). Mcmillan Cottom discusses how beauty is expressed through culture as well. She continues to mention and argue “when I say that I am unattractive or ugly, I am not internalizing the dominant culture’s assessment of me. I am naming what has been done to me. And signaling who did it” (p. 60). In addition, she argues how the desire to beautiful becomes a demand and a market. She argues it is a form of capital and white women control this capital. She argues that self-love and the desire to beautiful is a marketing tactic and way of marketing beauty as a product.

Dying to Be Competent:

            In this essay, Mcmillan Cottom discusses how people are not judged based on their earnings and or occupation. She argues that social class, gender, and race, are factors that people judge. She states, “For black women, racism, sexism, and classism have always made us structurally incompetent” (p. 81). She elaborates on pregnancy in the medical system invalidating her pain and feelings. Her story about her miscarriage really stood out to me. Many women who go into their doctor have their feelings dismissed and she emphasizes the problem with how the medical field invalidates neglect black women’s feelings. They told her they couldn’t do anything because she didn’t tell them she was in labor, but she kept telling them something was wrong. No one listened.

Know Your Whites:

            In this essay, she discusses how when she attended a fundraising event and how her mother told her “White people are crazy” and how she went to this event listening to how white people She mentions how knowing how white people think and react in certain situations. She discusses how there is a difference between white people believing in the idea of a white president and faith in Obama.

Black is over (Or, Special Black):

            This essay discusses the gap and unease between black people who are rich and the average working black individual. She discusses how there is a hierarchy within black communities. She states, “My social status necessitated that I perform or at least desire a different kind of blackness” (p. 146). She also states how when Obama left office “black was over” (p. 150).

The Price of Fabulousness:

            This essay discusses the stereotypes and stigma that poor black females experience and how black women from poor lifestyles and families experience discrimination more often and are treated differently than so-called higher-class black women. She discusses the societal belief and idea of poverty. She discusses no matter how smart or talented these black girls are they fail to be successful because of their backgrounds and their disadvantages. In this chapter, she talks about watching her grandmother helping others to make ends meet. She mentions how “status symbols..become keys to unlock these gates” (p. 168). Although this chapter is short, she elaborates on how black people from poor backgrounds experience hardships.

Overall, these chapters go into her personal experience as a black woman and an intellectual black women’s perspective. She experienced hardships that all women do face, but her feelings were invalidated by white women. She was treated differently for the way she looked and her thickness which influenced her perspectives on sexual abuse, beauty, and even politics.

My optional question for you all is when was a time when your feelings were invalidated by a man, or a doctor or when was a time when you have seen a black woman be treated differently or even heard a story when a black woman was treated less than by a white person?

This is a common issue and debate topic in society today. I believe her perspective gives white people an opportunity to hear from personal experience.

My other question, how do you feel about social status impacts your political beliefs?

 

This video was very insightful, and I thought I would share. It is a sit down with Tressie Mcmillian Cottom to discuss her book.

Feminist and Sociology Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom

 

 

Solnit Chapters 6-9 Curation

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Its not right for a woman to read! Soon she starts getting "ideas" and "thinking"... - Misc - quickmeme

Solnit Chapters 6-9 Curation

Emily Hobbs

IDST 398U

Prof. Simpson

 

          The last few chapters of Men Explain Things To Me seem to wrap up Rebecca Solnit’s ideas and raise some serious questions, arguments and observations. She begins in Chapter 6 by reflecting on the writings of Virginia Woolf, and springboards from a journal entry about darkness. “The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think.” As a generally optimistic person, this didn’t sit quite well with me. But as I continued reading, Solnit explains that the past, and the future, is dark, and it is our job to embrace the darkness as a realm of possibility, hope and the freedom that lies in the uncertainty. She explains that darkness is not a bad thing, and goes on to explain the idea of getting lost. Solnit explains how getting physically lost can lead to a wandering of the mind that stirs ideas. She explores the freedom of the mind, and the freedom that comes from roaming “geographically and imaginatively”. On page 96, Solnit references an essay by Woolf called On Being Ill that uses illness as a metaphor for the liberation of understanding what it’s like to be ill and understanding something that healthy people do not. Solnit uses Woolf to describe a type of freedom in feminism that reaches past society and institutions, but towards emotional and intellectual freedoms to explore. An excerpt at the end of the chapter conveys this idea best, “When life sank down for a moment, the range of experience seemed limitless… Beneath it is all dark, it is all spreading, it is unfathomably deep; but now and again we rise to the surface and that is what you see us by. Her horizon seemed to her limitless.” Taking a modern view of the idea of physical and mental wandering and darkness, do you agree with Woolf that the future is dark? Do you think there is meaning and hope within its uncertainty and possibility?

          Solnit moves into Chapter 7 and focuses on the power of credibility. She uses Cassandra of Troy as an example of a “boy who cried wolf” character who wasn’t believed and therefore discredited. Solnit describes years of stories of women who were believed to be delusional, dishonest and manipulative for simply telling their story and truths. She urges us to speak out and claims that the path to overcoming trauma of sexual violence is to be acknowledged. She explains fear women face about speaking up about sexual violence, how they face further abuse and humiliation for doing so and how they are often called liars. Solnit acknowledges that rare cases of false accusations exist, but urges us to make up our own mind about who to believe and why. She urges readers to recognize the pattern of discretization in order to side sweep the credibility conversation whenever a woman speaks out. 

          Chapter 8 talks about the real fear of women about sexual violence; being abused, raped and murdered. Solnit gives the example of the Isla Vista massacre in California that exemplified gender-based violence and started the #YesAllWomen movement. This online movement describes that no, not all men are misogynistic murderers, but yes, all women relate to the feeling of fear towards the ones that are. Following this massacre, definitions and words started appearing like “sexual entitlement” that embodied such gun violence and men’s fury towards women not meeting his needs. We all have seen the news and watched similar massacres. Are they ever by a woman? It’s always an angry man feeling he’s been “owed” something. 

          Solnit wraps up her book in chapter 9, explaining feminism as an age-old endeavor, examining how far we’ve come, and explaining that there is so much road left to travel towards the end of sexist oppression against women. She explains that Pandora’s box can’t be shut, queer people can’t go back in the closet, and the idea that ideas cannot be erased. There is no going back. Do you agree with Solnit? How far do you think we have left until we see real lasting change? I think there will always be oppression as long as imperfection exists in our world. There will always be, as Solnit calls it, the “volunteer police force” that tries to put women back in their place. This makes me think of Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and his line, “It’s not right for a woman to read, then she starts getting ideas and thinking.” (Video link if you want to see.) https://youtu.be/z23tQiua2S0 Well, Gaston’s fears have come true. We are educated, intelligent, capable, outspoken women who are more than just beautiful “wifey” material. I agree with Solnit, clearly we have come a long way as women, but also, there is so much further to go. Will we ever get there?  What do you think?

Feminists: What Were They Thinking

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They were thinking of all of the things that women could not do and the clear double standard that gave men advantage over women. There was no language to describe the kind of treatment women were subject to in the home and on the job. Attractiveness, narrowly defined, was the only metric used to value women.

They reference the play, “A Doll’s House,” by Henrik Ibsen. It is about the dissolution of a marriage because of the inequality between the husband and wife. The woman is a “doll”—a mere plaything subject to the whims of her father, and then her husband.

Here is a link to the full text of the play if anyone is interested.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2542/2542-h/2542-h.htm

The documentary talks about Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer, both of whom wrote seminal works in feminism. Freidan wrote The Feminine Mystique and Greer, The Female Eunuch. Below are links to articles on both that will give you an idea of where these seminal works fit in the second wave of feminism. Friedan’s argument was that women needed more than husbands and children for fulfillment. Her work seems to address only the problems of white, middle- lass women. Greer advanced the argument that becoming a homemaker was the equivalent to the surgical emasculation of men. Women could also be made “eunuchs”—robbed of the ability to fully realize their sexuality because of the nature of the suburban, nuclear family, consumerist family.

“4 Problems with The Feminine Mystique,” by Ashley Fetters

https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/4-big-problems-with-the-feminine-mystique/273069/

 

“What Germaine Greer and the Female Eunuch Mean to Me”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/26/germaine-greer-female-eunuch-feminists-influence

 

A Summary of The Female Eunuch

https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/authors/greer-germaine/female-eunuch.htm

 

Judy Chicago talks about “being fathered.” What does that mean for her? How did her father’s experiences give him a particular outlook on raising his daughter? What does that have to do with feminism?

In the second wave of feminism, girls were required to take “Home Economics” in high school. These courses taught basics of cooking, cleaning, and diapering babies. It was formalized socialization for becoming a wife and mother. Women’s work is the work of service and sacrifice. What is the problem with this kind of training? In my mind, it is that the high school boys didn’t have to take them, too. It was also a problem that there were not materials on finances—what it really costs to live and feed even one child. No explanations of banking, loans, credit, or compound interest.

Some things to think about: How much do looks matter today? Are women still focused on establishing families and being taught to be “sweet,” “good girls,” and “young ladies”?

 

 

Solnit – Chapters 1-5 Curation

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Curation of Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit
Chapters 1-5
Gina Flanagan

In Chapter 1, Solnit tells us a story about a time when she was under estimated by a man who presumed to know more than she about the very book she had just published. Once this man finally realized who she was, she reveled in his embarrassed arrogance, which she describes as, “when forces that are usually so sneaky and hard to point out slither out of the grass and are as obvious as, say, an anaconda that’s eaten a cow.” This all too-often occurrence of men explaining things to women is what Solnit calls “confrontational confidence.”  Solnit says this presumption can cause lifetime damage in the same way being harassed can cause a woman to fear speaking out against her perpetrator. She says women should try to find a happy medium between self-doubt and total self-confidence.

Q:  This article, 5 Critical Steps To Fearless Confrontation, provides some excellent examples of how to handle confrontation, and is especially relative to women.  As a woman, have you ever experienced “confrontational confidence” and how did you handle it? 

In Chapter 2, Solnit discusses several topics surrounding male authoritarianism such as rape, domestic violence, and murder, and how the extent of those crimes go largely unnoticed in the world.  Society has seemed to latch onto the theory that it is more crucial to teach women how to avoid becoming a victim, rather than teach men how to avoid becoming a perpetrator. Solnit says the predominant offenders of these crimes are men with 93.5% making up the total prison population. She sums up this chapter with a call to action – it is all of our jobs to “change it.”

Q:  In 2017, Time Magazine named its person of the year “The Silence Breakers” to call awareness to rape and sexual harassment. Do you think the “Me Too” movement has affected awareness of this topic? 

Chapter 3 opens by taking a story out of 2007 headlines when the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Strauss-Kahn, was charged and convicted of sexual assault. Solnit illustrates that even the head of an organization such as the IMF, that claims its purpose is to promote employment and reduce poverty among other things, was capable of and not immune to commit violence upon a woman. She also mentions former President Bill Clinton’s shortcomings regarding the global food supply.  This also reminds us of Clinton’s infamous sex scandal with intern Monica Lewinsky, compounded by his lie to Congress and the American people, and then subsequent impeachment.

Solnit discusses and debates the meaning of “marriage equality” in Chapter 4.  Those who are for marriage-equality, often same-sex marriages, dismiss the pattern of traditional roles of the male as head of household, or having power over the female.  They choose an “egalitarian” relationship with equal status. Those opposed to marriage-equality, often male-female heterosexual couples, wish to maintain the gender role tradition, or “hierarchal” status.  There is a long history of male dominance in the traditional gender role family.  For a long time, women had no rights to their property or income.  Their husbands owned them and could physically abuse them with no legal consequences.

For hundreds of years, women could not vote to change the unfair laws that were put in place, by men, to perpetuate this continual cycle of abuse and need for control. How grateful I am for the sacrifices made by many women during the suffrage movement.  They are the reason we can vote.

  • If you haven’t seen the movie Suffragette, I highly recommend it!

Solnit tells of one extreme example of male control in the story of Ohio resident Ariel Castro.  He brutally controlled his wife and then went on to commit horrible crimes to three other women for the next 10 years.  Solnit says it is not only this type of extreme brutality that feminists condemn, but also the abuse that women suffer daily that no one ever sees.  I remember hearing about this story and being terrified knowing that it could happen to anyone.  It made me wonder how many women could be locked up in someone’s basement and no one would ever know.

Chapter 5 reminded me of why most women take their husband’s name in a traditional marriage.  This is how it has always been and so we do not really question why.  A woman’s lineage can get lost or buried in time while a man’s name continues to create a legacy.  For example, Solnit explains that the first ever “family tree” was illustrated in the Bible to document Jesus’s lineage.  This tree is only for fathers and sons and so excludes the women in the story.  Exclusion=“grandmothers.” Many years after Jesus, women were still excluded within their own marriage.  The law provided that a man would “become one with the woman,” which sounds very touching at first, but in reality meant that she would now undertake the “condition of non-existence.”

Solnit wraps up this chapter rather poetically and gives us a visual of a spider spinning a web, like a family tree, that connects families, including the women- the grandmothers, into a future that is full of opportunity, equality, individuality, and voice.

Hooks, Chapters 8, 9, and 10

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I was excited to be assigned the three chapters of bell hooks’ book that deal with education, parenthood and ending violence as these are three subjects near to my heart. I am a parent, work in education and support tougher penalties for domestic violence.

Hooks opens chapter 8 describing that feminism is often the domain of college-educated women and points out that there are those in society that are unable to read or write. The National Center for Education Statistics states roughly 20% of Americans are illiterate1. As much of the feminist ideals were first shared via written communication, those unable to read were left out and notes there are places in the US where people have never heard the word “feminist”. Hooks makes a strong case that teaching illiterate people to read and write should be a focus of the feminist movement. This article on the characteristics of white supremacy culture lists “worship of the written words” as a barrier to equity which supports hooks’ theory.

Hooks states that feminism is often treated as theory in college instead of being a way of life for the average household. Long-held traditional sex roles are not challenged since people do not know they can or should be challenged. Two easy positive ways for feminist ideals to be disseminated would be as simple as feminists getting out and talking to people about the issues and making educational seminars available to the general public. A more complex way to communicate ideas is to make sure the scholarly writings are accessible and easily understood by those with less than an advanced degree.

An issue that feminists have to overcome is the separation of “thinking” (theory) and “doing” (praxis). Theorists have made some ideals so lofty that they cannot be put into practice and are put down by the activists (doers). The activists can be so anti-intellectual that they ignore all theories and the critical thinking that requires a plan to effect real change. Both theory and practice are needed. The theorists must make their ideas accessible to the common person and the activists must take the time to consider the ramifications of their work. Both of these issues would be helped by being able to read, write and communicate effectively but also clearly.

Chapter 9 delves deep into the feminist ideals of ending violence against women as part of ending all violence. Because this movement has focused on men as abusers and women as victims the argument does not fully encompass how both sexes can be abusive and how both sexes allow the abuse. The person causing the harm often has tacit approval to commit the harm especially in a home setting where the father figure is abusive to the woman and children in the home. Hooks maintains that women are more likely to use “coercive authority” (threats) than men while men are more likely to use physical violence than women but both need to be stopped. Hooks points out that in lesbian relationships there can also be violence or coercion and believes this is due to one partner having power over the other which proves all violence is connected. Male violence against women is a way that men extert control over women and helps them maintain their dominance. This type of violence is often the most accepted and unpunished type of violence. In the US’s past, the male dominance extended to fathers telling their daughters what (if any) type of education the girl could get, who and when they were to marry and if they were allowed to work and I believe it happens in other parts of the world currently. As the US became more capitalist and less agricultural, men lost the complete control over their wives and children but home violence did not cease. As women entered the workforce, men lost their power of being the sole wage earner and began to assert more violence to retain their power.

Hooks states that black men perpetuate a cycle of violence. This starts with the man being humiliated at work due to racism but unable to “fight back” because he needs the job. The man goes home and abuses his female partner. He gets relief from the anger and humiliation and due to male dominance he will not face any retribution from the female. Some women see the violence as a sign of love. Parents teach children that violence is acceptable by spanking a child and allowing a child to witness physical violence in the home. Entertainment glories violence especially when the woman has any kind of power (hooks uses the word “uppity” on page 124). Hooks believes that black women see physical abuse as another type of oppression they have no control over. Hooks believes militarism is linked to male dominance but is careful to point out that women can support the military and use of military force.

The part I found most interesting was “dualist thinking” which is thinking men are strong and violent and women are weak and gentle. This sets up an abuser/victim situation that supports sexism because women are treated as objects that are incapable of making decisions. This idea is a common theme in the book.

To end violence both sexes must stop thinking violence is part of a loving relationship, learn how to resolve disagreements calmly, and reject male domination over women. Feminists need to work to make these ideals commonplace.
Chapter 10 opens with hooks again asserting that feminism only discussed white, middle-class, college-educated views on parenthood being an oppressive obstacle. In black culture motherhood was less of a problem than oppressions such as racism, lack of education, skills and jobs. Hooks states white women and black women are often directly opposed to needs-white women want to work outside the home for pay and black women want to be home nurturing their family without the need for paid employment.

Feminist interest in motherhood is both positive and negeative. A positive aspect is more research is being done to promote and support parenthood. A negative aspect is if motherhood is romanticized it can fall prey to male supremacy-that a woman’s value is only motherhood. To combat these issues motherhood must be recognized as significant and valuable but not obligatory or oppressive.

For equality to exist, men must share in parenting. Hooks makes the point that men can/will not share in parenting until they are taught from birth that fatherhood is as important as motherhood. Fathers that do participate fully in childcare are considered extraordinary and/or a poor copy of mothers. This is detrimental because it denies the child access to both parents and puts the entire burden of childcare on the woman.

Some feminists do not want women to give up control that motherhood can bring. Feminists need to help society realize that equal parenting gives children more male role models, reduces the stigma that parenthood is solely a woman’s domain, reduces sexism and male dominance and helps men be more responsible. Couples considering having children need to discuss these issues before they have children.

Hooks states that tax funded public child care with both male and female teachers is needed and believes this should be a future platform for feminists. In addition, community child care is needed-where adults look out for all children whether they are related to the child or not. This is similar to the “It takes a village to raise a child”. Hooks notes she does not have children but does spend time with children.

These chapters were interesting and I learned about a different perspective.

1Adult Literacy in the United States, nces.ed.gov/datapoints/2019179.asp. https://nces.ed.gov/datapoints/2019179.asp

Hooks, Chapters 8, 9, and 10

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I was excited to be assigned the three chapters of bell hooks’ book that deal with education, parenthood and ending violence as these are three subjects near to my heart. I am a parent, work in education and support tougher penalties for domestic violence.

 

Hooks opens chapter 8 describing that feminism is often the domain of college-educated women and points out that there are those in society that are unable to read or write. The National Center for Education Statistics states roughly 20% of Americans are illiterate1.  As much of the feminist ideals were first shared via written communication, those unable to read were left out and notes there are places in the US where people have never heard the word “feminist”. Hooks makes a strong case that teaching illiterate people to read and write should be a focus of the feminist movement. This article on the characteristics of white supremacy culture lists “worship of the written words” as a barrier to equity which supports hooks’ theory.

 

Hooks states that feminism is often treated as theory in college instead of being a way of life for the average household. Long-held traditional sex roles are not challenged since people do not know they can or should be challenged.  Two easy positive ways for feminist ideals to be disseminated would be as simple as feminists getting out and talking to people about the issues and making educational seminars available to the general public.  A more complex way to communicate ideas is to make sure the scholarly writings are accessible and easily understood by those with less than an advanced degree.

 

An issue that feminists have to overcome is the separation of “thinking” (theory) and “doing” (praxis).  Theorists have made some ideals so lofty that they cannot be put into practice and are put down by the activists (doers).  The activists can be so anti-intellectual that they ignore all theories and the critical thinking that requires a plan to effect real change.  Both theory and practice are needed.  The theorists must make their ideas accessible to the common person and the activists must take the time to consider the ramifications of their work. Both of these issues would be helped by being able to read, write and communicate effectively but also clearly.

 

Chapter 9 delves deep into the feminist ideals of ending violence against women as part of ending all violence.  Because this movement has focused on men as abusers and women as victims the argument does not fully encompass how both sexes can be abusive and how both sexes allow the abuse.  The person causing the harm often has tacit approval to commit the harm especially in a home setting where the father figure is abusive to the woman and children in the home.  Hooks maintains that women are more likely to use “coercive authority” (threats) than men while men are more likely to use physical violence than women but both need to be stopped.  Hooks points out that in lesbian relationships there can also be violence or coercion and believes this is due to one partner having power over the other which proves all violence is connected.  Male violence against women is a way that men extert control over women and helps them maintain their dominance.  This type of violence is often the most accepted and unpunished type of violence.  In the US’s past, the male dominance extended to fathers telling their daughters what (if any) type of education the girl could get, who and when they were to marry and if they were allowed to work and I believe it happens in other parts of the world currently. As the US became more capitalist and less agricultural, men lost the complete control over their wives and children but home violence did not cease.  As women entered the workforce, men lost their power of being the sole wage earner and began to assert more violence to retain their power.

 

Hooks states that black men perpetuate a cycle of violence.  This starts with the man being humiliated at work due to racism but unable to “fight back” because he needs the job.  The man goes home and abuses his female partner. He gets relief from the anger and humiliation and due to male dominance he will not face any retribution from the female.  Some women see the violence as a sign of love.  Parents teach children that violence is acceptable by spanking a child and allowing a child to witness physical violence in the home.  Entertainment glories violence especially when the woman has any kind of power (hooks uses the word “uppity” on page 124).  Hooks believes that black women see physical abuse as another type of oppression they have no control over. Hooks believes militarism is linked to male dominance but is careful to point out that women can support the military and use of military force. 

 

The part I found most interesting was “dualist thinking” which is thinking men are strong and violent and women are weak and gentle.  This sets up an abuser/victim situation that supports sexism because women are treated as objects that are incapable of making decisions.  This idea is a common theme in the book.

 

To end violence both sexes must stop thinking violence is part of a loving relationship, learn how to resolve disagreements calmly, and reject male domination over women.  Feminists need to work to make these ideals commonplace.

Chapter 10 opens with hooks again asserting that feminism only discussed white, middle-class, college-educated views on parenthood being an oppressive obstacle.  In black culture motherhood was less of a problem than oppressions such as racism, lack of education, skills and jobs. Hooks states white women and black women are often directly opposed to needs-white women want to work outside the home for pay and black women want to be home nurturing their family without the need for paid employment.

 

Feminist interest in motherhood is both positive and negeative.  A positive aspect is more research is being done to promote and support parenthood.  A negative aspect is if motherhood is romanticized it can fall prey to male supremacy-that a woman’s value is only motherhood.  To combat these issues motherhood must be recognized as significant and valuable but not obligatory or oppressive.

 

For equality to exist, men must share in parenting.  Hooks makes the point that men can/will not share in parenting until they are taught from birth that fatherhood is as important as motherhood.  Fathers that do participate fully in childcare are considered extraordinary and/or a poor copy of mothers.  This is detrimental because it denies the child access to both parents and puts the entire burden of childcare on the woman.

 

Some feminists do not want women to give up control that motherhood can bring. Feminists need to help society realize that equal parenting gives children more male role models, reduces the stigma that parenthood is solely a woman’s domain, reduces sexism and male dominance and helps men be more responsible.  Couples considering having children need to discuss these issues before they have children.

 

Hooks states that tax funded public child care with both male and female teachers is needed and believes this should be a future platform for feminists. In addition, community child care is needed-where adults look out for all children whether they are related to the child or not.  This is similar to the “It takes a village to raise a child”.  Hooks notes she does not have children but does spend time with children.

These chapters were interesting and I learned about a different perspective.

 

 

 

1Adult Literacy in the United States, nces.ed.gov/datapoints/2019179.asp. https://nces.ed.gov/datapoints/2019179.asp

 

Hooks Ch 4-7 Summary and Thoughts

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Happy Monday all! This week’s chapters really drove some perspective home for me. In chapter 4, we read about sisterhood and how women of different backgrounds, race, and class understood and acted on what sisterhood was all about. I had to keep in mind while I was reading that this book was written nearly 40 years ago, because even though so much has changed in our growing society, so much is still the same for us and sometimes it felt like I was reading a book that was written today. We read a lot about the different ways women were trying to move the feminist movement forward, but they were all in the wrong ways. There were the women who were pushing for the “I am a victim” movement and the anti-male movement which I believe were the biggest reasons why the feminist movement was falling down. First of all, not all men want to be in the “sexist and all powerful man role”. There were men back then fighting for women’s rights, even more so now than ever. But if we had kept on the “all men are stopping us” train, then we probably wouldn’t be as far along today as we are. The victim movement was also just really disturbing to me. Especially since other women were teaching each other than they were all “victims” to men and sexism. Hooks stated on page 46 that “It would be physiologically demoralizing for these women to bond with other women on the basis of shared victimization. They bond with other women on the basis of shared strengths and resources. This is the woman bonding feminist movement should encourage. It is this type of bonding that is the essence of sisterhood”. 

Chapter 5 really brings men into perspective when it comes to how they are treated as well. Men are also oppressed but not all women saw that/still don’t see that. There were so many women who believed that the feminist movement was only for women, men had nothing to do with it, but that was so so wrong. As I mentioned earlier, not all men are bad. There are more men today than there were back then that believe women should be treated just as equal. Yes we have equal rights but there are still occurrences every day that pull women back down, showing again the need for the feminist movement. There are still many places who have a man and a woman working the same job, but the woman is still getting paid less. It is our job as women to continue to think that both men and women are in this movement together. Hooks stated on page 83, “Separatist ideology encourages us to believe that women alone can make feminist revolution- we cannot…..men have a tremendous contribution to make to feminist struggle in the area of exposing, confronting, opposing, and transforming the sexism of their male peers”. 

Chapter 6 was by far my favorite chapter this week. Mainly because I am all for women in powerful roles. Hooks really dives into the role of women in the workforce, the issue of women thinking all they need is more money to have more power, etc. When talking about women of power and stepping into a man’s role, Hooks mentioned on page 94 that it was never something that would happen in the United States as long as society continued to be the way it was. “As long as the United States is an imperialist, capitalist, patriarchal society, no large female majority can enter the existing ranks of the powerful”. Well I think that this chapter came at exactly the right time for us. No matter what political party you follow, no matter what race you are, the fact that for the first time in the history of our country we have a FEMALE vice president of the United States is AMAZING. If you are someone who can see above the current political party issue and just take into account what an amazing moment in history that this is for all women, then congratulations. This truly shows how much we as women have pushed forward since this book was written. Though things aren’t perfect yet in our country, this is only just the beginning for feminists everywhere. (Below are some great political comics that I think fit this piece)

In chapter 7, Hooks discussed the nature of work and how feminists can work together instead of degrading one another. She talked about how in the workforce, we commonly see women make fun of other women, especially those in a higher position than another. Though Hooks is writing this from what things were like in 1984, it is certainly very common still today in 2021. You see it not just in real life, but it is portrayed in movies and tv all the time! I think that if anything has stayed the same from any of these chapters, it is the fact that women are still catty. I’ve had to leave an amazing job because of the way women treated their other women coworkers! Hooks explains that in order to move the feminist movement in the future, women need to work together and help each other first, instead of solely fighting for ones own. 

For my peers, did anything in these chapters stick out to you that I did not mention, or have you also felt as though most of the issues in these chapters have not changed/have had little improvement! Let me know what you think! 

 

https://repeatingislands.com/2020/11/07/kamala-harris-daughter-of-jamaican-and-indian-immigrants-elected-nations-first-female-vice-president/

 

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/cartoons/vice-president-elect-kamala-harris-joe-biden-election-2020-20201110.html

Trying Again

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Here is where posts will go. You click the “+” sign at the top of the page to post. Once something is posted, a reply box shows up below. I did this last night, but this morning it wasn’t visible.