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Examining Bell Hook’s Contribution to Debates About Gender and Race
Introduction
The dawn of the 20th century paved the way for the second wave of feminist where Bell Hooks or otherwise Gloria Jean Watkins emerged as among the most renowned thinkers that contributed to the debates about gender and race. Among the most notable contributions to gender and race debates are the theories that provided the standpoint for feminists. The myriad of claims encompassing in the debates on gender and race states that knowledge is something that is socially situated in ways that marginal members of the society particularly women can be made aware and allowed to question as it is for the non-marginalized. Hooks framed strong arguments, which largely contributed to the debates during the 20th century and continuously regarded as fundamental principles in mediated representation of gender and race. The discussion will examine Hooks’ contribution to gander and race related debates focusing on the evaluation of the developed theories and arguments stated by Hooks. Based from presented arguments by Hooks, it is apparent that the genealogy of feminist standpoint encompasses a representation of gender on the context of transformative power criticism and culture.
About Bell Hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins also known for her pen name “Bell Hooks” was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in the United States on September 25, 1952 (Hall 1990). The reason for adopting a pseudonym is to honor her grandmother and mother, which Hooks believed to be the representations of unheard voices of black females in the American society. The pen name itself was established as a distinct voice that is separate from the Gloria Watkins persona. In addition, the pen name highlights her feminine ideas rather than an identity for popularity. Hooks’ writings are geared towards the imposition of gender and race in the context of popular culture and the media.
Hooks’ and the Contribution to Debate
When the book “Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism” in 1981, Hooks’ influence on gender and race debates became prominent as several feminists view her work as a postmodern milieu (egs.edu, n. d.). In her succeeding works, Hooks examined the usual role of black men that she believes to have shrugged the mantle of patriarch. When the British Cultural Studies was introduced where a great number of white males in the academics took interest and Hooks found herself in a rather more political and radical approach seems to fit the academic fashion. Although the relation between analyzing cultural studies appears to have rooted from the understatement of power and work in the modern culture, Hooks argued that the cultural critics should step out of the academic environment to the streets where the work can be shared with the wider audience. In this argument, Hooks believes that the analysis of culture should not rely solely within the academia because the reality that academic society explores is prominent in the outside world.
Understanding the realities of culture includes bringing the work to the streets, but the white male dominated discipline asserts that popular culture, which the analysis of cultural studies is rooted from, exists in and out of academia. The argument encompasses questioning of cultural studies in the academia insisting that it should move beyond the academic stance to offer the wider public with various ways of mind and imagination decolonization (Gilroy 1993). This view from Hooks establishes arguments on intellectual shifts and challenges that a woman in the academia is facing. Through commitment to activism and feminist theory, Hooks insisted on the imposition of complex ideas such as circulation in the academia in order to make it more accessible and available to the wider public (Ruben 2004). In the context of race and gender debate, the argument demonstrates a challenge on the role of gender in the academia and disparities in political views on academic practices. Such argument entailed an understanding of representation on gender role.
White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and the Capitalists
Throughout Hooks’ intellectual career, she has always been interested in the ways mass media influence the audience in their usual perception of American identity. Hooks referred to the United States culture as a nation of capitalists, white supremacy, and prevalent patriarchy. Although, she admits that her description of American culture is rather awkward, it still provides a term for an interconnected system of oppression, sexism, racism, and classism, which all defines the US cultural characteristics. Several members of academic community and Hooks herself welcomed the intervention to her argument, but there are some that finds it difficult to comprehend. The folks reacted to her view of United States culture particularly in Hooks’ rationale that white supremacy and capitalist patriarchy is a result of the “New Order”, which she admits has provoked angered and disturbed sectors of the American society (Martinas n. d.). Linking Hooks’ commitment in naming the system of insistence and oppression in terms of intervention of a public intellectual has created an impact becoming one of the most outspoken and well listened to for more than ten years.
The phrase and Hooks’ description of American culture contributed to the debates about race and gender due to the straightforward and rather provoking statements of disapproval to the prevailing social system (Mustacich 2013). Evaluating this particular contribution to debate entails the understanding of one of American culture’s perceived characteristics. This is because when a culture perpetuates an ideology or moral and mental standards based on skin color, that same culture (white culture) integrates a segregation of society in which the non-whites are labeled inferior to the whites (euroamerican.org n. d.). In a sense Hook’s argument is true because it is apparent from the history slavery of the blacks in the United States. The notion of control and intervening the social structure by segregating the inferior from the inferior based on skin color as criteria has long been adopted by the society and was integrated in its culture because there is a history of its cultivation.
Hooks did warn herself of public intervention, which is also the reason that she avoided interviews in order to uphold her arguments. She is concerned that if the media and the public in general would intervene with her debacle, there might be some factors in her arguments that would be edited and coopted that will undermine her previous claims. This is the kind of attitude was inherited by feminists that were adopted in debates about gender and race. The importance of upholding belief and avoiding any consequences that would render previous claims to be changed or compromised by loopholes created by new statements. In the effort to challenge the stronghold of the prevailing public platforms, Hooks forced herself to accept media inquiries although still suspicious about the dubious nature of media in coopting and editing truth. However, she believed that that the choice she made would justify her arguments that feminist alone will not make a difference, but rather a more revolutionary/radical feminist intervention. In the continuous debates about gender and imposition of race issues of discrimination and white supremacy, an important contribution that Hooks gave the feminists is the upheaval of consistency of presenting arguments.
Part of Hooks’ argument is that as long as the Untied States upholds its imperialist, patriarchal, and capitalist society, there will be no female majority that will emerge in equal existence, of rank and power (Hooks 1994). This belief provided a strong confidence among feminists engaged in the debates on sexism and gender equality stipulating that radical critics would not be able get their message across in the debate by remaining in the academic sidelines. The importance of engaging in the everyday popular culture and by talking to the people would be the best approach would be the best approach in insinuating social change. This is an example of realism attitude that looks into the social realities of the United States culture rather than relying on the theoretical underpinnings available in the academia. Talking to the people directly is a more effective approach in developing ideologies that can be utilized in gender and race related debates, which is among Hooks’ contribution.
The Politics of Representation
Bell Hooks’ work in advocating feminism, gender and race quality have contributed to several points of argument in academic debates about social and cultural issues. One of the main focuses of Hooks’ contribution to debate is the politics of representation. The politics of representation is a separate examination pertaining to gender, class, and race and how these they shape the image of the black society in America. This was followed by followed by a consideration of film and music influences on popular culture and how the popular culture change social perception about gender, class, and race. Hooks is known to be a radical critique of media exhausting her ideological intervention within the context of popular culture. In one of her early works entitled “Black Looks: Race and Representation” (1992), Hooks examined the wide range of popular media cultures integrated into advertising, literature, film, television, and music that represents black people and how the disparities in such representation constitutes social consequences. The insistence of the knowledge pertaining social narratives surrounding skin color is highly embedded with the ideology of white supremacy where the perceptions about black society shapes how the people makes sense of representation of blacks in the media.
Hooks generally contributed to race debate by looking at the influence of media in shaping social images wherein cultural identity was defined by becoming as well as being. Identity is something that does not innately exists, but something that transcends through culture, history, and time. Identity comes from history, cultural development and external influences that were stamped to the existing culture and passed on to the next as a cultural legacy. However, cultural identities undergo constant transformation where new cultures emerge to dominate as popular culture, but despite the transformation, the old ways still persist. This is the case of the black people experiencing prejudice in the modern culture as a result of the embedded culture and ideology adopted from the history of slavery.
The media in general is considerably an influential instrument that contributes to the construction of identity. Hooks’ most important contribution in the debates about racial issues is the examination of media and how it represents the minority and the dominant cultural sectors. For example, the political import of representation of the black people in the media often suggest beyond good and bad images that was created under certain prejudice. In this case, racial disadvantage come into play when white supremacy controls how blacks should be represented in the media. The images of bad black versus the good black demonstrate a notion of individualism of us versus them. However, Hook contributed to the debates of racial representation by moving it to a different direction through inquisitive standpoints wherein the political position challenges the created image of blackness and how such image was constructed. Since there was a great deal of resistance among the white Americans in terms of acknowledging people of color in the United States, the only way for Hooks to get her arguments across is to make radical, critical, and fierce interrogation of media practices, forms, and audiences.
In another argument, Hooks highlights the piercing of the wall of denial the majority of media consumers are putting in between themselves and the face of reality. This particular argument from Hooks speculates that political workings are the culprit of image makingof the blacks in America. Political domination at a certain level dominates the manner consumption that the audience has towards social and cultural images (Hooks 1992). In this regard, Hooks felt a great deal of responsibility in which making a stand to change system is a fundamental step to alleviate the issues of racial inequality. The key point in this objective is to insinuate a stronger standpoint in gender and race debates on the grounds that black people continues to the internalize the racial values and thoughts of white-dominated society and culture. The contribution of her objectives to the debates is to reinforce the alternative ways of viewing the world and to celebrate blackness.
Despite the radical spaces and positive perception towards cultural reflection, Hooks strongly believes that there is a collective crisis of representation of black men and women in the United States. For example, in the movie “Boyz N’ The Hood” the depiction of the young black males was a center of controversy because of the brutal depiction of black men that Hooks commented as difficult to watch. Hooks believes that, the media perpetuated such images to insinuate a racial genocide towards the black communities by representing them as extremely dangerous member of the society. In this regard, Hooks argued that such representation is a demonstration of colonization disempowerment, and dehumanization of the black people. This point of straightforward argument contributed to the debates of racial criticism by providing a framework for analysis of the popular culture and its political attribution in creating social images. In addition, the contribution to debates can also be attributed to the notion arguments that in order to challenge racial stereotype, it is important to develop a critical black gaze that will defeat the passive media consumption and assumes the need for confrontation and interrogation of the mass media imagery.
It is apparent that the most critical argument implied by Hooks contributions in racial debates is the notion that black people should accept the images that was created for them by the dominant society. Evaluating this particular argument calls for reflecting on the popular culture’s notion of inferiority and supremacy. It is apparent that white supremacy is prevalent in the United States with collective number of its population undermines the social humility in exchange for the imposition of racial categorization. This means the dominant culture of whites is in the prominent control of the available media resources that are in disposal for racial labeling and image making. For example, if a white American believes that blacks are inferior, the media in his disposal can be used as an instrument of making images of the blacks in which the consequences includes imposition of negative connotations about the blacks.
With this point in mind, it can be noted from Hooks’ contributions that challenging racial disparities and prejudices among the black can be done by using the media as well in changing social perceptions towards blacks. Furthermore, she believes increasing the number of blacks in the media industry is detrimental in combating the images created towards the black people and creates a more progressive and positive representation. This view in particular lacks a strong embodiment of the explicit argumentation towards racial representation. For one, it appears that the contributed suggestion encompasses and tends to produce very conservative results for change. The movies and the media n particular have always been flooded by images that are more profoundly negative than the positive images of blacks. Therefore, the viewing public has already constructed the same image in their heads about the blacks and contrasting that image with another visual, which will exacerbates the fact that media consumerism is the mere characteristic of American culture that Hooks strongly disagrees.
Ascertaining change in social perception can be done objectively by attributing the process of persuasion through evidential representation of texts shown by the media. More often than not, reality and fiction is of the same thing and challenging the stereotypical imagery of blacks in the media by another fictional approach can also be treated as fictional in some sense. Therefore, it encompasses less convincing elements that will reinforce feminist arguments on gender and racial debates. Unless the argument highlights the textual and evidentiary approach in challenging the stereotypical image of blacks in the media, it would have been offered a stronger standpoint the racial debates. This weakness on Hooks’ argument as a contribution to feminist debates demonstrates a limitation on commitment to radical change advocacy. Looking at the cinema as an example to challenge political representation is a weak advantage in racial debates because of the duality that fictional images in the media demonstrates, which might constitute confusing standpoint.
With regards to the arguments of gender equality, Hooks also provided insights and contributed arguments on gender roles, justice, equality, oppression, and theory based on the concept of media and representation. Looking into the context of gender representation in the media provides two contrasting aspects of image and voice. One might push the logic of equality as suggested by Hooks in gender debates might insinuate a notion that women are wanting to be treated equal to men. Since the dawn of the 20th century, the society was introduced to the idea of feminism as a groundbreaking advocacy for social equality towards women. In addition, the contemporary culture represents female gender as an icon of change, success, and girl power. However, social realities are faced by the challenges of oppression and perceived injustice towards women not only in the United States, but also in other parts of the world where women’s role in the society remained stagnant. Hook’s contribution to the debates on gender is the argument stipulating that the process of acceptance of women in America is often tainted with socialization of the sexist, racist, and classist on varying degrees and working on the labeling the advocacy as feminism encompasses an objective to alleviate the negative legacy of socialization.
This standpoint brings the concept of feminist through the lenses of standpoint theory in which assumptions such as knowledge as a socially situated. In addition, research in the academic discourse is more focused on the determining power relations, but not the consequences that such power relations has on gender issues and how it affects social perspectives on women in America. The theory is among the most highly debated during the second wave of feminism. Hooks argued on standpoint theory based on thee factors namely knowledge, social, and political power. Her contribution to debates regarding the theory is the reinforcement of cause and effect of power over social equilibrium and gender equality. It is apparent that the arguments contributed by Hooks in the debates on gender are the reinforcement of standpoint theory (Lis 2004).
The themes central to feminism in standpoint theory is the assumptions of power situated only on one side of the society. In this case, male gender as perceived to be dominant in the American culture according to Hooks (1994) hordes the privileges of knowledge and power and disregards the need to share them to women in the society. Recognizing power in society and how it is being distributed constitutes an importance to the recognition of the issues that emerges in the process. For example, Hooks argued that the United States society is sexist and classist, meaning the majority of the people believes that the male gender is far more superior to the female gender and the sense sharing power and knowledge to women is rather irrelevant. However, Hooks argued that such notion of social division deprives the women with its fundamental rights to move and make decisions that will constitute greater social effects. Hooks believes that the male gender lacks the confidence towards women in terms handling power to that will insinuate significant social changes. The ideology of drawn from the concept of standpoint theory marks the contribution of Hooks to gender debates. Determining the value of theoretical underpinnings of the standpoint theory in establishing strong arguments on gender issues encompasses a stronger ground for feminist reasoning.
Conclusion
Evaluating the contribution of Bell Hooks to debates on gender and race demonstrates a higher level of thinking on the critical issues in American society. The bold and often brave arguments presented by Hooks in her writings provide higher reasoning confidence for feminists engaged in debates over gender equality and racism. The displacement of white supremacy, and negative connotations embedded on the images created by the media through Hooks’ arguments articulates a strong predisposition to feminist advocacies. In general, the Bell Hooks’ contribution to gender and race debates amidst the wave of 20th century feminism is the framing of important standpoints in social and gender disparities perceived not within the academic discourse, but through social realities.
List of References
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