SOC 603 Chapter Notes - Fall 2018 Chapter 1 - Feminist theory, Progressed (EP)
SOC603 – CHAPTER 1
EXCERPTS FROM FEMINISM FOR EVERYBODY - BELL HOOKS
• Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression
• All of us, female and male, have been socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought
and action
• To end patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we need to be
clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism
• Males as a group have and do benefit the most from patriarchy - from the assumption that
they are superior to females and should rule over us
o But those benefits have come with a price - in return they are required to
dominate women, to exploit and oppress us, using violence if they must keep
patriarchy intact
Feminist politics: where we stand
• Misunderstandings of feminist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about
feminism from patriarchal mass media
o The feminism they hear about the most is portrayed by women who are primarily
committed to gender equality - equal pay for equal work, and sometime women
and men sharing household chores and parenting
o They see that these women are usually white and materially privileged
o They know from mass media that women’s liberation focuses on the freedom to
have abortions, to be lesbians, to challenge rape and domestic violence.
• The wrong minded notion of feminist movement which implied it was anti-male carried
with it the wrong-minded assumption that all female space would necessarily be an
environment where patriarchy and sexist thinking would be absent
• There was a great deal of anti-male sentiment among early feminist activists who were
responding to male domination with anger
o Anger at injustice that was the impetus for creating a women’s liberation
movement
o Early on most feminist activists (majority of whom were white) had their
consciousness raised about the nature of male domination when they were
working in anti-classist and anti-racist settings with men who were telling the
world about the importance of freedom while subordinating the women in their
ranks
o Participating in these radical freedom struggles awakened the spirt of rebellion
and resistance in progressive females and led them towards contemporary
women’s liberation
• As contemporary feminism progressed, as women realized that males were not the only
group in our society who supported sexist thinking and behaviour (that females could be
sexists as well) - anti male sentiment no longer shaped the movement’s consciousness
o The focus shifted to an all-out effort to create gender justice
