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Summary Bell Hooks: "Ain' I a Woman?"
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Black feminism the famous essay "Ain't I a Woman?"
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Gender: les 6: Ain’t I a Woman?30/10/15
Judith Butler next week.
- Publication: 1988
- Bell hooks: you read at bell hooks and look at the word in a
different manner
She has enlarged the scope of feminism, she addresses several blind
spots in American western feminism. The work is at the beginning of
intersectional theory: became a part of feminism and gender
thinking. Her work is at the beginning of the awareness that talking
about an identity does not imply one certain aspect but there are
various aspects to it. It’s about race, sex, sexuality (aspects of
personal identity and a light to power).
She reveals a blind spot: she talks about American feminism. Her
case is American history. What she reveals is the deeply racism in
American feminism: it has foreclosed the participation of black
women. American feminism has denied the black women. American
feminism needs racism in order to make its point.
- Bell hooks: sceptical of black feminism. She discusses the
appearance of black movements and doesn’t see that as a solution
to the problem. Her utopian vision is a sisterhood of all women.
Psychohistory: sometimes (un)consciously used. This feminism she
talks about is part of a larger American culture mind set (racist,
capitalist, imperialist state). The aim of American feminism is to get
the same position as men but not to change society as such.
Rhetorical aspect: pronoun “we”: has different functions in course of
the text: sometimes it’s not clear to see who we are (sometimes
women in general, sometimes black women): difference between
white and black women, still she persists in using “we” which has an
important political value.
- Passages: Introduction: summary of what she’s talking about. She
makes a historical analysis and also shows how history is made. She
addresses two periods of feminism of American society => 1)
second half of 19th century: evolution of slavery + 2) 1960s: Civil
Rights movement: moment of social unrest and the women’s
movement. Black women were denied womanhood and were the
victim of sexism and patriarchal thinking but since they were not
seen as women, they had no right to complain.
p.6: history of black women is always coming after history of white
women: whenever white feminist movement changed course then
black women would still be in the previous phase.
Ms. Magazine : glossy magazine. Politically very consistently feminist
magazine (discrimination, problems at work) vs. Essence: magazine
, for black women, meant to empower black women, it’s a glossy
magazine in a different way (lifestyle, beauty) => typical of white
women and black women and their emancipation. Explanation for
this difference of magazines is given by history: being a denied
women, Essence is a compensation for years of denial.
Morrison: popular culture. She has changed to this because she
thinks it reaches a greater variety. (part of her larger analysis of
society).
p.4: double bind => black women can’t join white women’s
emancipation movements and on the other hand they can’t
associate themselves as blacks (denying their womanhood).
Symbolic figure who is considered to be the beginning of black
feminist movement: Rosa Parks
p.5.: emancipation movements have never been about changing
society ( Simone de Beauvoir who has an utopia of changing the
whole society).
p.6.: why is it so self-evident that women are not acknowledged?
Because it’s all about men, women are not even considered part of
it. Black women are supposed to be very enduring (role of the strong
black women that can undergo a lot of pain without complaining
becomes a stereotype).
- Speech: Sojourner Truth: gave a public speech on an abolition
conference in Ohio. Got the title “Ain’t I a Woman?” => one of the
examples that show that there have been people who believed that
racial equality and women’s rights should go together (something
that white feminism turned its back to). She addresses the difference
between both forms of emancipation and thinks them together. She
says that there’s a lot going on about equal rights => two
emancipation waves in American history. She addresses a crucial
question: her situation in life is difference: but is this difference in
situation a reason to deny me womanhood? She addresses this idea
that womanhood is something that is only for white women. She
demands acknowledgement of her sex like white women do
although she doesn’t look like white women and has a different
situation.
- Michele Wallace: work that analyses situation of black women: but
more an autobiography of the life of a black woman. Her aim is
liberation of women. Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics is a different
work. Within history of feminist criticism is a landmark, she was
important in that she wrote a book that showed how new criticism
was in capsuled in a patriarchal thought.
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