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Vitou Chann
Professor Gomez
English 100
October 12th 2010
Proper Definition of Feminism (Rough Draft)
Men and women have never been treated equally because sexual categories role as the
barrier. In that case, it is notable that women are the oppressed. Therefore, women were trying
to gain their rights equally. Since then, the term “Feminism” came to present and expanding all
over where there is unequal between men and women. Maintaining this idea, there are two
women writer, bell hooks and Virginia Woolf in the book called “Cultural Conversations: The
Presence of the Past”, who using their article to express their opinion about feminism. Gloria
Jean Watkins or well-know under her pen name as bell hooks write her name in lower case to
represent that the substance of her book is more important than her name. Being feminists,
hooks and Woolf have come up with two difference conclusion of feminism because of the
differences of the society, time and situation where they live in. it is also remarkable when the
two writer draw their argument on “bourgeois/liberal”.
To better understanding, it is essential to be able to obtain the fundamental of hooks’s
definition of feminism. Since she is not only a feminist but also a professor, writer and social
critic, her definition of feminism seems to be more engage with social aspects such as ethic and
races, in particular. hooks express her definition of feminism as “feminism is a struggle to end
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sexist oppression. Therefore, it is necessarily a struggle to eradicate the ideology of domination
that permeates Western culture on various levels as well as a commitment to reorganizing
society so that the self-development of people can take precedence over imperialism,
economic expansion, and material desires.” (70) With her definition, hooks weight her
concerned on general inequality that the society always comprises. In other word, in order to
end gender inequality, it is necessary to end races discrimination, social status and unequal
political category. Additionally, her definition of feminism is to shape people’s thought to better
understand the elements that formulate women to be the oppression. In her essay, for
instance, she brought up “the great majority of women who have benefited in any way from
feminist-generated social reforms do not want to be seen as advocates of feminism.”(68) This
has exposed an aspect that women are unequal not only because of men but women
themselves who are not embodying their idea and confidence to get over the oppressor.
Hooks also mention about the bourgeois/liberal as the ‘ideological support system”
which offering the force to equalize women to men with the help of white middle class women
(68). This means that she perceive the upper-middle class women as the key and main power to
release women from being the oppressed as they hold the power to do away the struggles that
oppressing women cannot do.
By looking at Virginia Woolf quoted “a woman must have money and a room of her own
if she is to write fiction,” it is clear that to be a feminist, Woolf needed to go through difficulty.
it is unavoidable to be a self-depend and uncomplaining to single out from the society. Base on
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hooks’s definition, she may make an assumption that Woolf was not a real feminist as she
relied on men to be able to fit in the society.
Even though the inequality in the society is being eradicated, there are some case
remains in today society, not to mention sexist oppressing. Woolf, as an upper class with
knowledgeable of being a feminist, she was still lack of skill to get over the inequality. Thus, she
can better only a small portion of the inequity. hooks, on the other hand, so far obtain the idea
of real feminism but she has no capability to achieve her goal as it require more effort to do it.