Happy Birthday bell hooks! Why She Make Sense In Contemporary Times

As a naïve feminist, bell hooks’ work relates to me. bell hooks wrote about ideas that many of us might have at least thought about once in life but never spoke about openly. This makes her courageous, the courage every feminist must have while challenging patriarchy-induced inequality. hooks wrote everything that mattered to her- politics, self-love, or belongingness. bell hooks' work challenged conventional feminist theory. hooks was critical of the feminist attitude toward men, whom she considered a product/victim of patriarchy. That is what makes me fall for bell hooks literature. Her theories may go back to the 1980s onwards, but they are so contemporary and make sense today.

Feminism, from time to time, drew criticism for being radical against men, and also something pseudo about it. hooks’ work is inclusive of women, men, and the LGBTQIA+ community and proves people’s reservations about feminism wrong. Her message is crystal clear feminism is about equality for all. The central idea of her books was gender, black women, capitalism, masculinity and patriarchy.

You must be wondering, why her name is not in the capital. hooks preferred to use lowercase to make her work stand out and not to draw focus on herself. For her, it was also a way to erase her younger self, a girl who was always wronged and punished.

Who Is feminist bell hooks?

hooks " target="_blank" rel="noopener">identified herself as celibate or at least did for some time in her life. bell hook was a leading public intellectual, feminist theorist, and cultural critic. hooks gave herself a pen name from Gloria Jean Watkins, she became bell hooks. A name adopted to honour her maternal great-grandmother- Bell Blair Hooks. 

Her childhood was pretty dysfunctional. She grew up in the racially segregated south, attended school, and faced discrimination. hooks was the seventh child in a family. A lot of her writing is influenced by childhood. Her book Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood (1996) navigates complex racial and gender hierarchies that she faced in childhood. The literature she wrote rescued her from social oppression and discrimination.  

hooks was born on 25th September 1952, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the US, and took her last breath on 15th December 2021. hooks graduated in English Literature from Stanford University and took PhD from the University of California. Since 2004 taught at Berea College in Kentucky. 

Work of feminist bell hooks 

bell hooks spoke extensively about Black women and their space in the feminist struggles. hooks' work added a new perspective to feminism in the 1980s. hooks first published work was a poetry book titled- And There We Wept in 1978. hooks wrote over 30 books with varied genres such as children’s fiction, self-help, memoir, and poetry. Her writing style was jargon-free, simple, realistic, and for the masses. Books contained complex terms, but her writings made it easy. Her first book- Ain’t I a Woman? got its title from abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s speech- Ain’t I a Woman. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989), Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984), and Black women and feminism (1981) was about the effect of racism and sexism on Black women and targeted white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy. 

Her mid-2000s works drew criticism, for instance, a book - We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity (2004) she has illustrated that men are seen as a strength, invulnerable, and maintaining a competitive edge. Emotional openness and honesty are still among the sacrifices made to patriarchal masculinity. Only feminism has offered men hope to break free from patriarchal thinking. The book- All About Love: New Visions (2000), put light on the ethic of love, community, and its complexities. 

Her writings still make so much sense be it on the LGBTQIA+ community, feminism, or self-love. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom” (1994), she argued that the American education system had been constructed to quell dissent and shape young people into productive workers

She called out culture for idolizing fame, money, and sex. She also felt sex is high on the list of status symbols, the definition of sex is narrow and unimaginative. According to her celibacy can be a form of self-respect and preservation. 

In her " target="_blank" rel="noopener">speech at the University of Washington, she indicated that gay marriage and family values are new names for patriarchy. "When we advocate any difference, without changing language, without talking about what we are wanting, what kind of coupling we want...we end up reinscribing the heterosexism, heterosexist practice...even if people involved are not heterosexual. The patriarchal family is the most f*** up system in the world”. 

Her most ambitious project, the bell hooks Institute documents the life and work of intellectuals, feminist theorists, cultural critics, artists, and writers. In an " target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview, she said, “My work has been and hopefully want it to be for the people. I want to create a space where anybody who walks in can see it and work with it”. 

Today, bell hooks are not with us but have left a legacy behind. Her work is included in many university courses and inspires many. Actor Emily Ratajkowski, while writing her essay collection, My Body (2021) cited bell hooks as her inspiration. She inspires me to write and stand for everything I believe in. Her literature has helped me navigate the complexities of patriarchy, that I face in my daily life. I am sure this might be the case for many like me. 

The views expressed are the author's own. 

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