bell hooks (she refused to capitalize her name because she wanted people to focus on her ideas, not her brand) was an American writer who spent her career building bridges between feminism, anti-racism, and class politics. She said: you cannot fight one oppression while ignoring the others. They are the same fucking system.
Her idea, intersectionality (the term was coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, but hooks was doing the work before the word existed). A Black woman is not just a woman plus Blackness. She experiences a specific kind of oppression that is different from both White women’s sexism and Black men’s racism. You cannot understand her situation by adding two categories together. You have to see the intersection.
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984) was a direct attack on mainstream White feminism. hooks argued that the feminist movement had been hijacked by middle-class White women who cared about getting into the boardroom while ignoring the women cleaning the boardroom. Real feminism, she said, must start from the margins. From the women who have the least to lose and the most to gain.
She also wrote about love. All About Love (2000) redefines love as a political act. Love is not a feeling, she said. It is a choice. A practice. A commitment to another person’s spiritual growth. In a society built on domination, choosing to love is choosing to resist.
Starter book: Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984).
