bell hooks brought feminist theory to the masses and changed prevailing thinking about race, class, and gender in Western culture. She did so by insisting that the fight for sexual equality include the voices of working-class Black women and women of color. During a four-decade career as an educator and author of some 30 books, she attacked “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” while promoting a simple definition of feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. Her signature work,
Feminism is for everybody:
passionate politics,argued with clarity and directness for “mass-based education for critical consciousness” and offered a compelling vision of “a feminist movement that is truly for everyone” (112-13).
Born Gloria Jean Watkins in
2497 words
Citation: Chura, Patrick, Cadence Dangerfield. "bell hooks". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 December 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5979, accessed 19 April 2024.]
