INTRODUCTION Growing up as a poor black woman can be hard, especially in the 1950s. For bell hooks this may have been challenging but, this did not prevent her from persevering. Hooks is known for being an American author, a social activist and a feminist. She attended University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Stanford University. Her teaching career began in 1976 as and English professor at University of Southern California. It was then that she published her first book called And There We Wept. Many of her works are about race, class, sexuality and feminism. bell hooks’ life certainly affects her works in many ways. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION bell hooks was born in Kentucky in 1952 into a working class family. She grew up in a racially segregated town and went to segregated public school. Later on she attended integrated schools. Being that she grew up in such a polarized era, she faced many obstacles that people now may not deal with to the same extent. HOOKS’ INFLUENCE In my opinion, …show more content…
Her audience can use the mistakes in her life to learn how to change similar circumstances in their own life, whether it is for themselves, their kids, or their family so they do not experience the negative influences of patriarchy. Many other authors can learn from hooks’ writing and know that it is okay to share about their personal life so that others can learn from it. The world can also simply learn how to deal with patriarchy and learn from her feminist teachings. hooks’ writing was more connected with the audience of this time period because many people, not just women, in the fifties can agree that patriarchy was a normality. This made her audience realize that just because they grew up a certain way does not mean that they cannot change their circumstances. They have the power to change their lifestyle, if they truly want
Civil rights issues stand at the core of Anne Moody’s memoir. However, because my last two journal entries centered on race and the movement, I have decided to shift my focus. In her adolescent years, Anne Moody must live with her mother, her mother’s partner Raymond, and her increasing number of siblings. As she reaches maturity, she grows to be a beautiful girl with a developed body. Her male peers and town members notice, as does her step father Raymond.
As one of seven children, bell hook was taught that money and possessions did not make her a better person that hard-work and determination
Throughout history there have been standers that have been set by the time, that men and women have followed. Many men and women have had to follow the male and female roles set by society, the macula role and the feminine role. Each defining the way a person acts and how they are perceived by others. In the short story Franny by J.D. Salinger a young college student names Franny and her boyfriend Lane spend their time in a restaurant after being apart for a while. The spend most other there time taking in the restaurant then eating.
Her major accomplishment is coming from a major upper class Southern status to providing privileges to people of different status and race. This soon spread all over across the country and state to where most girls wanted to be in Girl Scouts. This had a great impact on American society because without her, the idea that girls cannot do as many physical activities as boys can wouldn’t be that strong in most people’s head. For instance in 2005, Juliette was memorialized in Washington, DC in the Extra Mile Points of Light Monument. This is the only national monument that pays tribute for individuals who, “causes others to help realize a better America.”
She advocated for things like freedom of choice for women and for better living along with working conditions for women and men. The life and accomplishments of height and how she fought for the escape from racial and sexual discrimination, and is not mentioned in history classes today, shows how inherently harder it is for women to fight for justice during the civil rights movement. Women activist, like Height have had to fight a two-front war, one being that of racism and the other being that of sexism. The fight for justice has always been different for men and women. Even if men are being persecuted
However, it did help women to see that their more than a housewife and that they do not need to wait for Prince Charming to sweep them off their feet. If you want something done then you have to do if for yourself and that’s what many women had learned in the 60s. Although there are some naive women, for example Sister James, who believes in anything a man tells her because she thinks they might actually feel bad or they were just trying to protect you but to defy the boss, who was trying to help you survive this world and the workforce they are in, is very prudent. Sister James wanted to be herself but it was not until the end did she realized that this world is a vicious place that feeds on the innocent and weak and no is whoever they say they are. This was the world that helped men feel as if they were superior as if a woman hadn’t helped through the process.
When growing up, it is important for others to allow and help you grow as a person in all aspects. When you run into someone who will not allow this to happen and attempts to limit you, your imagination, and your track to reaching your full potential, you must push past them and not let them stop them. It is important to keep moving until you find the person that will support you through your time of growth. In school, you will run into teachers that will attempt to limit you and, whether intentionally or not, will not allow you to fully reach your potential, while other teachers will do whatever it takes to get you there. Having and listening to the right teacher can allow you to go the distance while letting the wrong one get you down and
In the introduction “Come Closer to Feminism” Hooks describes the conversations she tends to have with people who are interested in what she does. The misconception that feminism is hatred towards men by women is one that is constant according to her. As she explains most men and even women have the idea that feminist hate men, that they are all lesbians and they take jobs away from white men to make their lives harder, but when asked what they have read or know of feminism most will answer saying that they have never read a book. Their ideas of theories have arrived from that of what others say or mention. Before reading Bell Hooks “Feminism is for Everybody” I did not understand what feminism truly meant, I had the definition that I had seen online of feminist women being what they called "feminazi".
In Bell Hooks’ essay, “Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor”, Hooks addresses and clarifies the misinterpretations that people have of the assumptions made of the poor, how poor individuals are viewed in human culture and how the poor are represented on television. She helps the audience understand how these assumptions are wrong. Hooks begins her first point by addressing the false assumptions that are made every day about poor people through expressing her own experiences.
The book, Bad Feminist, written by Roxane Gay, is a collection of essays that argues about many topics of feminism and typical problems in today’s society. “What We Hunger For," is one of her personal essays. Gay reveals to her reader the difficult journey she had to endure as a teen, while also taking her reader through the cultural experiences that many girls endure but never talk about. She later explores The Hunger Games trilogy and its heroine Katniss Everdeen to emphasize the cathartic and sobering stories in young adult literature. Gay claims that through the use of young adult literature and movies that speak of true experiences and accomplishments, the dark past young adult endure can be unlock and resolved.
Hooks explains everything about patriarchy, she explains a religious perspective, a feminist perspective, and even a personal experience with patriarchy. To strengthen this, hook uses numerous rhetorical strategies. Hooks’ use of structure, tone, personal experience, logos, and variety of perspectives, support her purpose and strengthen her essay. As mentioned before, structure is a rhetorical strategy used in Hooks’ writing.
In reading Bell Hooks “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” outlining her own discovery of herself and the place in society where she stands as a woman or even as a black woman. Hooks distinguishes the importance of “taking back” for the oppressed and the dominated to recover oneself. I felt the writing of Bell Hook in “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” is an audacious act by underlining the problem of woman and reveal Hooks path of rediscovery. Hooks writing “Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black” is an audacious act that underlines the problem of woman.
Rosa Parks’s influence on the fight for equality was arguably the most impactful of all the leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks first embarked on her Civil Rights journey by becoming involved with the NAACP. The author of the History website page on Rosa Parks claims, “in December 1943 Rosa also joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and she became chapter secretary” (Rosa Parks). Rosa started out as a follower, but became dedicated to the organization so she ran for a board position. About ten years later, the famous Rosa Parks story took place in Montgomery.
Rosa parks follows another woman, Claudette Colvin. Claudette did do exactly the same thing as Rosa, but she was pregnant at the time so the NAACP though she didn’t have the ability to stand up on her own. Colvin, Parks, Lafayette, Emeagwali, Fuller, Malcolm X, and Bridges are just a couple of the great african-american heroes. Rosa Parks is a influence on all people. She shows everyone that if they stand up in what the believe in they can do all things, even if there are consequences.
She showed all African American women and men that they can achieve the impossible and have an intelligent mind like everyone else. Even African American poets from today like Alice Walker found her as an inspiration. In one of her poems about being brought to america, she perfectly summarizes what the struggle was being a slave that is equal to everyone