Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

In Chapter 1, hooks discusses the reasons behind the loss of momentum around feminist movement. One reason behind the loss of momentum is the lack of clarity around the definition of feminism; hooks blames this confusion on the mass media, which ignored the nuanced and complex nature of the early stages of the development of feminist theory.

In the first sentence of Chapter 1, hooks defines feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (1), a definition that deliberately avoids suggesting that men are “the enemy” (1). hooks believes that most people understand feminism to be “anti-male” (1), a misconception that “reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism from patriarchal mass media” (1). According to hooks, the media presents a version of feminism that concentrates on matters of gender equality like equal pay and equal division of household labor, which also happens to be the viewpoint of reformist feminists.

hooks goes on to credit the “early feminist activists who were responding to male domination with anger” (2) as the force behind the women’s liberation movement, but as feminism developed, “anti-male sentiment no longer shaped the movement’s consciousness” (3); after all, women can support sexist ideas and behaviors as well as men can. This progression eventually led to an examination of class and race, the results of which “emphasized that we could only become sisters in struggle by confronting the ways women—through sex, class, and race—dominated and exploited other women” (3).

hooks continues by differentiating the revolutionary feminists from the reformist feminists, explaining that “[o]ften individual black women” (3) were revolutionary feminists, who were “at odds with reformist feminists” (3). Reformist feminists focused mainly on women “gaining equality with men in the existing system” (3), a capitalistic patriarchal system that benefits white people significantly more than Black people and other nonwhite people.

hooks herself identifies with revolutionary feminists who seek to “transform that system” (4) and “bring an end to patriarchy and sexism” (4). After reminding the reader that “white women began to assert their need for freedom after civil rights” (4), hooks explains that revolutionary theories “became and remain a privileged discourse available to those among us who are highly literate, well-educated, and usually materially privileged” (5). To complicate matters further, “[l]ifestyle feminism ushered in the notion that there could be as many versions of feminism as there were women” (5).

These discussions of the fluidity amongst different types of feminism makes the point that “[f]eminist politics is losing momentum because [the] feminist movement has lost clear definitions” (6). At the end of this chapter, hooks reiterates that “feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression” (6).

hooks states in Chapter 2 that consciousness-raising amongst women must allow women opportunities to confront and challenge internalized sexism within themselves. Before “women could change patriarchy, we had to change ourselves; we had to raise our consciousness” (7).

At the beginning of the movement, women called meetings in their communities to raise awareness of the situation; these informal gatherings were often therapeutic for women who had difficult experiences living in a patriarchal society. During these conversations, women sometimes argued and disagreed with each other, but hooks states that “[o]nly through discussion and disagreement could we begin to find a realistic standpoint on gender exploitation and oppression” (8). These discussions began to take place in academic settings, as the field of women’s studies was introduced, and “[b]efore too long, the women’s studies classroom had replaced the free-for-all consciousness-raising group” (9).

The replacement of informal groups with academic classes meant that feminists with a revolutionary outlook lost momentum and mainstream visibility; worse, the feminist movement “became entrenched in colleges and universities which are conservative corporate structures” (10). According to hooks, women began to adopt a feminist stance to enable their careers to move forward. This situation weakened the feminist movement, as women no longer “had to learn about feminism and make an informed choice about embracing feminist politics to become a feminist advocate” (10).

hooks asserts the importance of the continued development of programs to raise consciousness for women, as women who “betrayed the cause in their interactions with other women” (11) were, and continue to be, a “dangerous threat” (12).