bell hooks
The Blue Stockings
Upbringing
GLORIA JEAN WATKINS
Born: September 25, 1952
“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow
down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s
ignorance.”
bell hooks
Adopted the name of her great
grandmother as her pen name in order to
“Honor the unlettered wisdom of her
foremothers.”
HOPKINSVILLE, KENTUCKY
“A world where folks were
content to get by on a little,
where Baba, mama’s mother,
made soup, dug fishing
worms, set traps for rabbits,
made butter and wine, sewed
quilts, and wrung the necks
of chickens.”
Working as a telephone
operator provided her with an
education of an alternative
sort, she worked almost
exclusively with a community
of working-class black
women.
bell hooks
bell hooks
It was in her role as a teacher
that she felt she was doing her
most important work, she knew
that for a people who had been
both historically and legally
denied the right to education,
teaching was one of the most
substantial forms of political
resistance.
bell hooks
bell hooks currently lives in New York City and
remains an important figure in the fight
against racism and sexism in America.
EDUCATION
bell hooks education
~ She loved being a student, she
loved learning!
~ ‘a place of ecstasy – pleasure
and danger’
~ bell hooks’ teachers were black
women who she feels were on a
mission. They were committed to
nurturing intellect so that their
pupils could become scholars,
thinkers or cultural workers.
bell hooks education
School integration 1960’s bell was transferred to an integrated
school that was the complete opposite of her first school.
All white teachers who she judged were not interested in
transforming the minds of their pupils but simply
transferring irrelevant bodies of knowledge.
The knowledge they were supposed to soak up bore no relation
to how they lived or behaved.
TEACHING TO TRANSGRESS
F ir s t m a j or b o ok o n E d u catio n ,
T eaching to T ransgress,
p u b lis h ed in 1 9 9 4.
It is a collection of essays
exploring her ideas that is
written in a very personal
style, giving examples from
her own experiences.
This is quite deliberate as
she intended to be read by a
diverse audience covering
anyone interested in the
practice of education.
She argued for a
progressive, holistic
education – engaged
pedagogy
Nearly ten years
after the publication
of teaching to
transgress, hooks
produced a sequel
entitled Teaching
Community with a
subtitle of A
Pedagogy of Hope.
bell hooks goes on to stress the demands this places
upon educators in terms of authenticity and
commitment.
This book develops
themes in the earlier
book and in
particular the process
of building
community in the
classroom.
FEMINISM
WHAT IS FEMINISM?
“Feminism is a
movement to end
sexism, sexist
exploitation, and
oppression.”
The problem is sexism.
“As all advocates of feminist politics know 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 antimale. Their misunderstanding of feminist
politics reflects the reality that most folks learn
about feminism from patriarchal mass media.”
-bell hooks
Forget the idea
that Feminism is
anti-man. Embrace
the concept that
“Feminism is for
everybody.”
bell hooks- feminism
~Reproductive Rights- free love,
contraceptives/abortions, classism
~Beauty within & without- clothing, make-up, body
diversity, breast cancer, eating disorders
~Feminist Class Struggle- Reformist vs.
Radical/Revolutionary feminist thought.
~Family & Parenting- abuse from the patriarchy
Legacy
Interconnectivity
bell hooks believes in the interconnectedness of issues in
society and likes to take a connected view rather than the
traditional separation. She relates things as they work as a
whole, ignoring the separates to form a complete way of
looking at things. For example, she refers to the "White
Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy". This is a good example
of issues that are traditionally kept separate, but are
brought together by hooks to show how they are connected.
She teaches a way to view the world as a whole, an
entirely new school of thought that people can apply to their
beliefs.
In choosing to become a
teacher, bell hooks found
her calling and found a
way that she believed
would make the most
profound change in the
world. It was among the
most influential forms of
political resistance that she
could ever have chosen. In
teaching, she introduces
her students to a new way
of thinking and helps them
find their voice.
In her belief that education sets you free, bell hooks
sets the example for women—and people—everywhere. By
educating yourself you are setting yourself free. That is
something everyone should have, no matter their age, race, or
sex. This is the ideal that bell hooks leaves behind.
In addition to this, bell hooks is a strong voice for the
female population—especially colored women. She is
never afraid to stand up for her beliefs, never afraid
to be the voice that’s heard in regard to the rights of
women. She is a strong role model for anyone (though
especially women) that wants to stand up for equality.
“WE ARE RARELY ABLE TO INTERACT ONLY
WITH FOLKS LIKE OURSELVES, WHO THINK AS
WE DO. NO MATTER HOW MUCH SOME OF US
DENY THIS REALITY AND LONG FOR THE
SAFETY AND FAMILIARITY OF SAMENESS,
INCLUSIVE WAYS OF KNOWING AND LIVING
OFFER US THE ONLY TRUE WAY TO
EMANCIPATE OURSELVES FROM THE DIVISIONS
THAT LIMIT OUR MINDS AND IMAGINATIONS.”
“We must continually remind students in the
classroom that expression of different opinions and
dissenting ideas affirms the intellectual process.
We should forcefully explain that our role is not
to teach them to think as we do but rather to
teach them, by example, the importance of taking
a stance that is rooted in rigorous engagement
with the full range of ideas about a topic.”
–bell hooks
Awards
She has won several awards and received nominations. These include:
Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics: The American Book Awards/
Before Columbus Foundation Award (1991)
• Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism: "One of the twenty most
influential women’s books in the last 20 years" by Publishers Weekly (1992)
• bell hooks: The Writer’s Award from the Lila Wallace—Reader’s Digest
Fund (1994)
• Happy to Be Nappy: NAACP Image Award nominee (2001)
• Homemade Love: The Bank Street College Children's Book of the Year
(2002)
• Salvation: Black People and Love: Hurston Wright Legacy Award nominee
(2002)
• bell hooks: Utne Reader's "100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life"
• bell hooks: The Atlantic Monthly's "One of our nation’s leading public
intellectuals"
In short, bell hooks is a strong voice for equality, in regard to both race and
gender. She teaches her students—which through her books and lectures, is
everyone—that it is okay to have beliefs and not be afraid to share them.
You will always meet people who are different than yourself, and that is
alright. The important thing is that you show everyone respect, give yourself
the freedom to express your beliefs in an intelligent, fair, and open way, all
while being true to yourself and being proud of who are.