‘Feminism Is for Everybody’ by bell hooks | Book Discourse

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello welcome to the program this is the black ponder i’m neil trotter and today we’re going to be discussing feminism that’s right i want to ask you a question i’ll ask you a question do you know what feminism is like do you know what feminism actually is may you might have an idea about what feminism is but is that idea actually what feminism is because a lot of people get feminism wrong they do they do now i’m not trying to mansplain here i’m going to go to one of the sources right this is from a text from the famous prolific black feminist bell hooks you know we’re going to examine this text right here and it’s called feminism is for everybody passionate politics and we’re going to dive deep into what feminism is and we’re going to add a philosophical perspective to that discussion so in case you don’t know what feminism is uh there’s a great book to give to somebody like here here’s a book and it’ll basically break down what feminism is and it’s important to have a text like this because mainstream media as well as many loud people on the internet oftentimes give a false impression of what feminism is you get a construed uh misunderstanding and people tend to run with that and it often does give feminism a bad rap so let’s check out some quotes from the book which is what we do here at the black ponder we read quotes from the book from the text and then i add supplementary commentary and we continue the discussion online via the comments so let’s talk about misconceptions of feminism i begin with the first quote i picked this is on page roman numeral number nine in case you want to follow along and you got this text this is the beginning of the second to last paragraph there has never been a time when i believed i being belt hooks the author feminist movement should be and was a woman only movement in my heart of hearts i knew that we would never have a successful feminist movement if we could not encourage everyone female and male women and men girls and boys to come closer to feminism common misconception that feminism is this movement that is only for women that’s it right and men should be left out of feminism that’s a misconception right but you know you oftentimes see that in mainstream media and then you get feminists that are highlighted right that believe this and they’re put up into the forefront but bell hooks is telling you nope that’s not what the original conception of feminism was all about so what was feminism originally conceived to be well let’s continue with some quotes and we can talk about that so this is roman numeral number 12. we’re writing the introduction of the book and this is beginning on the fourth line of the third paragraph feminism is a movement to end sexism sexist exploitation and oppression okay let that sink in i’ll read that one more time feminism is a movement to end sexism sexist exploitation and oppression okay i love this definition bell hook she loves that definition she put that there because it so clearly states that the movement is not about being anti-male it makes it clear that the problem is sexism and that clarity helps us remember that all of us female and male have been socialized from birth on to accept sexism thought and action as a consequence females can be just as sexist as men and while that does not excuse or justify male domination that’s true too it does mean that it would be naive and wrong-minded for feminist thinkers to see the movement as simplistically being for women against men to end patriarchy another way of naming the institutionalized sexism let’s use some definitions here patriarchy what is that institutionalized sexism okay that’s what we’re talking about here so to end that we need to be clear that we are all participants in a perpetuating sexism until we change our minds and hearts until we let go of sexist thought in action and replace it with feminist thought in action some key things to keep in mind here institutionalized sexism and bell hooks talks about being socialized by this institutionalized sexism from birth from birth and we’re socialized to accept sexist thought in action from the day we’re born this is what patriarchy is let that settle in a little bit this is the truth that feminism is trying to uh reveal it’s trying to let out that we’re being socialized to be sexist individuals both men and women and that’s messing us up is like hurting us as a a species as the human species is being negatively impact by this socialization how so well i’ll just continue right where i left off 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 but those benefits have come with a price what is that price in return for all the goodies men receive from patriarchy they are required to dominate women to exploit and oppress us using violence if they must to keep patriarchy intact most men find it difficult to be patriarchs most men are disturbed by hatred and fear of women by male violence against women even the men who perpetuate this violence but they fear letting go of the benefits they are not certain what will happen to the world they know most intimately if patriarchy changes so they find it easier to passively support male domination even when they know in their minds and hearts that it is wrong that is a search for truth is it not you know something’s off you know something’s wrong but by revealing that uh negativity you you risk losing something you re you risk losing the status quo you know you got to shake things up there’s certain things you’re gonna have to give up but isn’t that always the case with the search for truth we’re getting philosophical here i turn to page one all right this is at the end of the first sentence of the second paragraph most people do not understand sexism or if they do they think it is not a problem masses of people think that feminism is always and only about women seeking to be equal to men and a huge majority of these folks think feminism is anti-male their misunderstanding of feminist politics reflects the reality that most folks learn about feminism from patriarchal mass media so it’s this common notion of feminism right it’s that angry irate loud mouth lady saying down with men men are the problem we don’t need men to succeed we need to put men in their place and this is the perception of what feminism is and it that’s and it’s a perception of what feminism is because that is the popular portrayal of what feminism is you might argue like well that’s all i see that’s all you see because mass media is patriarchal right the vast majority of feminists who are not like that are not portrayed in the mass media to represent the true nature of what feminism is but i’ll continue reading the feminism they hear about the most is portrayed by women who are primarily committed to gender equality equal pay for equal work and sometimes women and men sharing household chores and parenting they see that these women are usually white and materially privileged so you’re seeing only one specific kind of flavor of feminism which is not accurately portraying the truth behind what this movement actually is so now we’re on page two this is the second paragraph i’m beginning at the end of the eighth line 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 many women even those involved in feminist politics chose to believe this as well so now i’m gonna start reading from page three beginning at the eighth line the focus shifted to an all-out effort to create gender justice i skipped down three lines utopian visions of sisterhood based solely on the awareness of the reality that all women were in some way victimized by male domination were disrupted by discussions of class and race i skipped down four more lines these discussions did not trivialize the feminist insistence that sisterhood is powerful they simply emphasize that we could only become sisters and struggle by confronting the ways women through sex classes and race dominated and exploited other women and created a political platform that would address these differences so now we’re getting more into what feminism actually is you know it’s a critique on the way oppression works it’s not just through gender you know it’s not just about gender equality we also have to examine things like sex we gotta examine things like class and we have to examine things like race because social qualifiers like those are used together to support this patriarchal structure this institutionalized sexism feminism isn’t one-dimensional feminism’s critique is multi-dimensional but i’ll continue right where i left off even though individual black women were active in contemporary feminist movement from its inception they were not the individuals who became the stars of the movement who attracted the attention of mass media often individual black women active in feminist movement were revolutionary feminists like many white lesbians they were already at odds with reformist feminists who resolutely wanted to project a vision of the movement as being solely about women gaining equality with men in the existing system even before race became a talked about issue in feminist circles it was clear to black women and to their revolutionary allies and struggle that they were never going to have equality within the existing white supremacist capitalist patriarchy let me repeat that existing white supremacist capitalist patriarchy multi-dimensional from its earliest inception feminist movement was polarized performance thinkers chose to emphasize gender equality revolutionary thinkers did not want simply to alter the existing systems so that women would have more rights we wanted to transform that system to bring an end to patriarchy and sexism since patriarchal mass media was not interested in the more revolutionary vision and never received attention in mainstream press okay we’re on page four this is the third paragraph given the reality of racism it made sense that white men were more willing to consider women’s rights when the granting of those rights could serve the interests of maintaining white supremacy i skipped down four lines reformist feminists thinking focusing primarily on equality with men in the workforce overshadowed the original radical foundations of contemporary feminism which called for reform as well as overall restructuring of society so that our nation would be fundamentally anti-sexist most women especially privileged white women ceased even to consider revolutionary feminist visions once they began to gain economic power within existing social structure so what bell hooks is breaking down is this divergence of feminist practice between certain groups of people who identify as feminists with other groups of people who identify as feminists some of these feminist women actually benefited from the patriarchal structure because they got financial economic benefit because of their class so these are the reformist feminists right that are saying like look we just need gender equality that’s all we need we don’t there’s it’s all good all the other things that are put in place we can work with that but those feminists who were not benefiting from the patriarchal structure radical revolutionary feminists were saying no the whole system is jacked up and it’s jacked up because not everybody’s benefiting certain people are exploited for the benefit of others there’s a fiction put in place a fiction of domination whereas one group of people gets dominated so that a few others can benefit but they benefit from the domination so the whole system is jacked we need to tear down the entire system but tearing down the entire system would take away the economic uh financial like class benefit that these reformist feminists these white women of privilege were receiving so there’s this conflict going on so bell hooks is breaking down why are we getting this false perception of feminists from people who identify as feminists what’s going on here she’s breaking it down let me continue reading ironically revolutionary feminist thinking was most accepted and embraced in academic circles in those circles the production of revolutionary feminist theory progressed but more often than not that theory was not made available to the public it became and remains a privileged discourse available to those among us who are highly literate well educated and usually materially privileged revolutionary radical feminists became this discipline as academic discipline known as feminist theory and it got all steeped into academia which had the negative effect of restricting people who could be feminists who could benefit from revolutionary feminism because to be involved in academia at a high level you gotta go to like these high higher up universities and that takes a lot of money right it takes a lot of privilege so again what we’re seeing is that the truth of feminism is being restricted limited it’s not being exposed to the masses we are on page five now this is the second paragraph while it was in the interest of mainstream white supremacist capitalist patriarchy to suppress visionary feminist thinking which was not anti-male or concerned with getting women to the right to be like men reformist feminists were also eager to silence those these forces reformist feminism became their route to class mobility they could break free of male domination in the workforce and be more self-determining in their lifestyles while sexism did not end they could maximize their freedom within the existing system and they could count on there being a lower class of exploited subordinated women to do the dirty work they were refusing to do and we were just talking about that right uh these reformist feminists women who were privileged based on their class and that race they were actually benefiting from these patriarchal structures they didn’t want to give that up so they kind of had did this half-hearted version of feminism they pushed that for it and they you know kind of played down a revolutionary radical feminism which is the more truer version of feminism in terms of when contemporary feminism was conceptualized this radical revolutionary version was originally the goal but as what bell hooks is naming reformist feminists these feminists realized oh if we start being revolutionary radical about it we’re gonna have to give up some of our class race privilege we only do that so i’m skipping down to the end of the second to last line of page five suddenly the politics was being slowly removed from feminism and the assumption prevailed that no matter what a woman’s politics be she conservative or liberal she too could fit feminism into her lifestyle obviously this way of thinking has made feminism more acceptable because its underlying assumption is that women can be feminists without fundamentally challenging or changing themselves or the culture and the issue is that true feminism is challenging culture right is uh changing the institutional system that we were all socialized in let me continue for example let’s take the issue of abortion if feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression and depriving females of reproductive rights is a form of sexist oppression then one cannot be anti-choice and be feminist a woman can insist she would never choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right of women to choose and still be an advocate for feminist politics she cannot be anti-abortion and an advocate of feminism concurrently there can be no such thing as power feminism if the vision of power evoked is power gained through the exploitation and oppression of others so there’s clear lines drawn in the sand when it comes to being a feminist depriving females of reproductive rights that is not feminist of any form of sexist oppression if you’re supporting that you’re not feminist if you’re supporting power that is gained through the exploitation and oppression of others then you’re not a feminist because feminism is about ending sexist oppression is about reproductive rights for everybody it is about ending power through exploitation and oppression that’s what feminism is so then bell hooks starts talking about okay how did contemporary feminism first started to begin how was it conceptualized and she talks about how well women would get together in groups usually in somebody’s house or maybe a small you know community center or some sort of common area where it was safe women would get together and they would talk about the issues that they faced you know the oppression that they were dealing with as women this is how it started and from there a movement began to spark these were called conscious raising group sessions so let me go to page 8 and read you the second paragraph importantly though the foundation of this work began with women examining sexist thinking and creating strategies where we would change our attitudes and believe via a conversion to feminist thinking and a commitment to feminist politics fundamentally the consciousness raising group was a site for conversion consciousness raising groups you know people getting together talking about problems that they face the social problems the real human problems that they face the spiritual problems emotional problems the oppression the domination the exploitation and how that was affecting them and what they could do to stop conscious raising group discussions this is what how feminism started and it sounds a lot like the way philosophy works if you really think about it well how a lot fruitful philosophy works right philosophy that brings about actual positive results that are constructive and progressive you know i i put in my notes here in the margins philosophical dialogue within groups isn’t is an important part of feminism and i’ve always said this i’ve said this in previous videos that philosophy needs to go toward throughout that feminism is going you know i think that’s the next step and we need to take this consciousness raising group session therapy thing that how feminism started we need to do that with philosophy i put in my notes personal discovery of truth by questioning social systems with others with other people talking it out we’re on page 10 this is the end of the second line women with revolutionary feminist consciousness many of them lesbian and from working class backgrounds often lost visibility as the movement received mainstream attention their displacement became complete once women’s studies became entrenched in colleges and universities which are conservative corporate structures once the women’s studies classroom replaced the consciousness raising group as a primary site for the transmission of feminist thinking and strategies for social change the movement lost its mass-based potential so once you know feminism radical feminism became like feminist theory that was only talked about in academic circles uh it became restricted right because only people of certain financial means can get access to that world of academia right the university which is a conservative corporate structure we do need to take feminism outside the world of academia and bring it back to the masses and i would argue it’s the same thing with philosophy we got to take philosophy outside the world of academia and bring it home to the masses fortunately we got youtube that can do that for both and we can join the two together and we can add a philosophical perspective to this feminist framework to help benefit society we’re still on page 10 this is the third paragraph without the consciousness raising group as a site where women confronted their own sexism towards other women the direction of feminist movement could shift to a focus on equality in the workforce in confronting male domination i skipped down six lines females of all ages acted as though concern for or rage at male domination or gender equality was all that was needed to make one a feminist without confronting internalized sexism women who picked up the feminist banner often portrayed the cause in their interactions with other women so feminism is about figuring out how to dismantle institutionalized sexism it’s not about just raging against men we’re good now we’re on page 11. this is the end of the second line of the second paragraph the terrain of radical feminist politics was overshadowed by a lifestyle based feminism which suggested any woman could be a feminist no matter what her political beliefs needless to say such thinking has undermined feminist theory and practice feminist politics when feminist movement renews itself reinforcing it again and again the strategies that will enable a mass movement to end sexism and sexist exploitation and oppression for everyone consciousness raising will once again attain its original importance effectively imitating the model of aa meetings feminist consciousness-raising groups will take place in communities offering the message of feminist thinking to everyone irrespective of class race or gender while specific groups based on shared identities might emerge at the end of every month individuals will be in mixed groups check out what i put on my notes men need to do this too we need to talk about how the institutionalized sexism is messing us up i actually try to do that in the comments sections below with many of my videos particularly the feminist videos let me continue though feminist consciousness raising for males is as essential to revolutionary movement as female groups had there been an emphasis on groups for males that taught boys and men about what sexism is and how it can be transformed it would have been impossible for mass media to portray the movement as anti-male it would also have preempted the formation of an anti-feminist men’s movement okay if we learned about sexism particularly institutional sexism at an early age um we would understand that the the whole notion that feminism is just this damn damn demand and i’m so angry at men i could scream and take power away from we would just be like dude that’s not what feminism is what are you talking about but many of us men have bought into the patriarchal mass media of this false perception of what feminism is but let me continue often men’s groups were formed in the wake of contemporary feminism that in no way address the issues of sexism and male domination like the lifestyle based feminism aimed at women these groups often became therapeutic sessions for men to confront their wounds without a critique of patriarchy or a platform of resistance to male domination and you know uh bell hooks is referring to like groups like these male rights groups that have been men’s rights groups that have been popping up or in cells you know you hear that those that type of stuff that kind of uh reaction is a result of the destruction of patriarchy right patriarchy is putting these standards on men that are hard to live up to and so you see these kinds of male groups come out the problem is these male groups are just complaining about the expectations and why they’re not getting it and why they should get it instead they need to be focusing on why do these expectations even exist like are these expectations even real why are we concerned with even meeting these expectations and when we meet these expectations who are we actually hurting you know these expectations of domination and oppression not only are we hurting women when we do this we hurt ourselves we’re on page 12. this is the middle of the first line without males as allies and struggle feminism movement will not progress all right a black feminist right here saying breaking it down let me read that again without males as allies and struggle feminism movement will not progress okay feminism needs men to achieve his objective feminism is not anti-male right feminism is pro-male it’s pro-everybody let me skip down seven lines the most powerful intervention made by consciousness-raising groups was the demand that all females confront their internalized sexism their allegiance to patriarchal thinking in action and their commitment to feminist conversion that intervention is still needed it remains a necessary step for anyone choosing feminist politics the enemy within must be transformed before we can confront the enemy outside the threat the enemy is sexist thought and behavior okay the enemy is not men okay that’s not what feminism is saying okay the enemy the what we need to overcome is sexist thought and sexist behavior that’s the problem so we need to philosophically examine what sexism is and how is sexism institutionalized once we understand that then we can start breaking it apart and throwing it away let me read you this quote it’s on page 19 it’s the end of the fifth line everything we do in life is rooted in theory whether we consciously explore the reasons we have a particular perspective or take a particular action there is also an underlying system shaping thought and practice now it’s time to get philosophical whether we realize it or not everything is rooted in theory everything whether we realize it or not there’s an underlining system that shapes our thoughts and practice this is how reality works so what is this system shaping our thoughts and practices is patriarchy bell hooks quotes the coming of black genocide which is by a radical white activist mary barfoot the quote reads and i’ll just you know i’ll take part of that quote and tell you uh patriarchy and true supporters of national in class oppression patriarchy in its highest form is euro imperialism on a world scale ural imperialism is what patriarchy is when we look at it from the world perspective you know this is you know we’re not just talking about america we’re talking you know america’s where i’m from we’re talking about globally patriarchy is ural imperialism so what is euro imperialism well let me read you this other quote this is from page 55 and i start on the third line all white women in this nation america know that their status is different from that of black women and women of color they know this from the time they are little girls watching television and seeing only their images and looking at magazines and seeing only their images they know that the only reason non-whites are absent slash invisible is because they are not white all white women in this nation know that whiteness is a privileged category the fact that white females may choose to repress or deny this knowledge does not mean they are ignorant it means that they are in denial so that’s very important quote the white woman is seen on the television shows on the magazines and in media black woman is not or the woman of color is not or if they’re there they’re in the background all right and the white woman in the foreground and for a moment let’s take the woman out of it and just say white white in the back in the fourth front black in the background why right and you might say like well that’s not true that’s not actually happening you know it’s happening you just choose to repress or deny it you’re in denial feminism is trying to wake you up trying to get you to not just wake you up really because you you’re already woke really you’re already awake you just got to get past the denial you know that’s why it’s so difficult to accept this feminist argument because you have to like break through that denial phase so when we talk about white in the forefront always in our media and black in the background and i’m talking about race here uh this is what we’re talking about when we talk about ural imperialism uh ural centralism it’s an age-old thing by putting the white image in the forefront in a black image in the back in the background along with other people of color the eurocentric empire or the power structure is supported and this is patriarchy so what about men how are men involved in this right well bell hooks breaks it down this is page 64. we’re on a third to last line men are socialized by ruling class groups of men to accept domination in the public world of work and to believe that the private world of home and intimate relationships will will restore to them the sense of power they equate with masculinity as more men have entered the ranks of the unemployed or received low wages and more women have entered the world of work some men feel that the use of violence is the only way they can establish and maintain power and dominance within the sexist sex role hierarchy until they unlearn the sexist thinking that tells them they have a right to rule over women by any means male violence against women will continue to be a norm violence is itself a tool used to propagate perpetuate patriarchy this ural imperialism male violence is domination of men over women being suppressed this is encouraged by our social structures when men feel powerless the way society tells men to oh this is how you gain power is to dominate the only way you’re able to be powerful or to be to express yourself as a man masculinity is to dominate you know and you’re who do you dominate you dominate women you dominate uh people who are feminine this is how you assert your manhood this is the false perception that patriarchy socializes all of us but let me continue early on in feminist thinking activists often failed to liken male violence against women to imperialist materialism this linkage was often not made because of those who were against male violence were often accepting and even supportive of militarism why are we supporting militarism because the military is what is what’s used to carry forth imperialism right that’s how empires dominate and control they use their military so by supporting this notion that the military is like what should be you know militarism is what is the norm this is how things should be it allows imperialism this your urocentralism it allows that to happen it’s okay to dominate right it’s it’s fine go ahead and do that because they’re doing it the most powerful people you know the empires of the world are are doing it to propagate their power so when they’re using their military powers to maintain their power and they’re using their military powers in you know horrible ways it’s the stealing of land the death of innocent people the exploitation of other people they want you the empire wants you to know like this is okay this is this is how society works that normalization has to happen for the imperial power structure to maintain its dominance this socialization serves a purpose but we’re on page 66 and this is the last paragraph in our nation masses of people are concerned about violence but resolutely refuse to link that violence to patriarchal thinking or male domination feminist thinking offers a solution and it is up to us to make that solution available to everyone trying to break it down trying to take it out of academia and put it here on youtube and just you know to the common person feminist thinking offers a solution to this problem the problem of violence but now we’re on page 67 this is the 12th line it was difficult to face the reality that the problem did not just lie with men facing that reality required more complex theorizing it all it required acknowledging the role women play in maintaining and perpetuating sexism as more women moved away from destructive relationships with men it was easier to see the whole picture it became evident that even if individual men divested a patriarchal privilege the system of patriarchy sexism and male domination would still remain intact and women would still be exploited and or oppressed saying the problem is systemic it’s not just individually based take out a few individuals you end the problem no it’s the whole system that’s messed up we’re on page 68 we’re on the sixth line before contemporary feminist movement was less than 10 years old feminist thinkers began to talk about the way in which patriarchy was harmful to men without changing our fierce critique of male domination feminist politics expanded to include the recognition that patriarchy stripped men of certain rights imposing on them a sexist masculine identity okay a false identity men all men are not natural dominators right and this role of being a dominator is tough on the spirit you know it it’s hurt it’s harmful for the spirit and the mind and the emotionally psychologically it meant it can mess you up being the constant dominator even if it does give you certain societal privileges one of the main problems is that you become something that you’re innately not you’re lying and you’re told oh this is who you actually are when in reality this is not who you are at all it’s just what society tells you who you are so you can never really self-actualize right you can never really become the true person that you innately are but we’re going to go to page 69 and we’re going to begin on the second paragraph feminists who called for a recognition of men as comrades in struggle never received math media attention they’re the ones that don’t receive the attention they’re like what feminism is not anti-male i’ve never heard that before yet because mass media is patriarchal but we’re going to go to the last paragraph and i’m going to begin at the end of the third line of course by characterizing feminism as being man-hating males could deflect attention away from the accountability of for male domination if feminist theory had offered more libertarian visions of masculinity it would have been impossible for anyone to dismiss the movement as anti-male to a grave extent feminist movement failed to attract a large body of females and males because our theory did not effectively address the issues of not just what males might do to be anti-sexist but also what an alternative masculinity might look like you know a masculinity when men can be the true beings that they are instead of just being these dominators we’re on page 70 this is the second paragraph what is and what was needed is a vision of masculinity where self-esteem and self-love a one’s unique being forms the basis of identity cultures of domination attack self-esteem replacing it with a notion that we derive our sense of being from dominion over another patriarchal masculinity teaches men that their sense of self and identity their reason for being resides in their capacity to dominate others to change this males must critique and challenge male domination of the planet of less powerful men of women and children i’m just going to keep going let’s go we’re on page 71. this is the second paragraph most men in this nation feel troubled about the nature of their identity even though they cling to patriarchy they are beginning to intuit that it is part of the problem i skip down four lines many men are anguished because they do not engage the liberating critiques that could enable them to face that these promises were rooted in injustice and domination and even when fulfilled have never led men to glory bashing liberation while reinscribing the white supremacist capitalist patriarchal ways of thinking that have murdered their souls in the first place they are just as lost as many boys it’s true you know this this whole patriarchy thing is hurting men and it’s hurting women and this is the message of feminism look you’re getting hurt too men right because you can’t even be who you truly are rather you’re imposed upon an identity of dominator uh that is this existence of violence uh which is soul-crushing should we should we be living like this no this is the message of feminism this is page 74. i begin in the middle of the sixth line we have all been socialized to embrace patriarchal thinking to embracing ethics of domination which says the powerful have the right to rule over the powerless and can use any means to subordinate them is that true you live in a doggy dog world you know there this world is filled with winters and it’s filled with losers are you going to be a winner or are you going to be a loser you know that’s this is a patriarchal thinking you know everybody be a winner right we don’t live in a doggy dog world dogs can play with each other we can eat together and not eat each other let me read you this and now bell hooks is quoting another text original blessing by matthew fox this actually this is page 107 and this is the second paragraph political movements for justice are part of the fuller development of the cosmos and nature is a matrix in which humans come to their self-awareness in their awareness of their power to transform liberation movements are a fuller development of the cosmos’s sense of harmony balance justice and celebration this is why true spiritual liberation demands rituals of cosmic celebration and healing which will in turn culminate in personal transformation and liberation now is a quote from the text original blessing now here’s bell hooks liberation theologies see the liberation of exploited and oppressed groups as essential acts of faith reflecting devotion to divine will struggles to end patriarchy are divinely ordained okay i believe that i believe that feminism is a liberation theology what’s portrayed in mass media as feminism is not and there are a lot of feminists with quotes uh you know spouting a version of feminism that is not centered around liberation is not centered on ending exploitation and oppression this is not true feminism feminism is about allowing all people to be free right liberating all people allowing everybody to realize their true selves so that they can have the path of self-actualization that’s what feminism is but it’s also it’s not vague either it’s very direct and there is a lot of specifics to it you know the feminism knows the problem okay feminism is a movement to end sexism that’s a problem sex is exploitation that’s the problem an oppression that’s the problem okay and what is all this sexism sexist exploitation and oppression this is patriarchy what is patriarchy patriarchy is just another way of saying institutionalized sexism right that’s what it is and patriarchy at its highest form we’re talking about globally right what we’re talking about is ural imperialism understanding that power in this world is controlled by empires and we need to be to end that okay empires with militaries and it’s um these empires gain power through domination and they try and justify that by brainwashing us and socializing us to think that domination is normal and this is the way of life and there are certain people who need to be dominated and then there are certain people who are the dominators and it’s just not true and it’s this is hurting all of us that is the message of feminism so next time you see a misconception of feminism right when you see like a lady just raging and saying ah i hate man i hate man i hate that’s not what feminism is you know you and you honestly don’t really see that that much right uh what you see often are men uh saying like oh i saw this woman doing that and doing that the you know you know it it does happen but it’s rare most feminists are talking about this feminists like bell hooks other black feminists like angela davis archery lord or patricia hill collins and we’ll be covering all those and more here under black powder because y’all need to understand what feminism actually is it is a route to end violence oppression exploitation in this world and it deserves to be treated like a philosophy because it can be and is a philosophy that’s constructive progressive and beneficial to humanity anyway before you talk any smack about feminism read this book first feminism is for everybody by bell hooks check it out check it out well you’ve been watching the black ponder tune in next time for more philosophical thoughts you