Like many women I grew up educating myself on feminism. While I related to and felt empowered by many feminist texts that I read, it wasn't till I came across bell hooks and her works on feminism especially in the context of experiences for women of colour (WOC), that I truly felt seen. I wasn’t alone. Many women around the world have turned to hooks’ works for guidance, empowerment, education and so much more. It is why the announcement of her untimely death has left many in mourning as they reflect on her work and what she meant for the feminist movement.
hooks' passing was announced by her niece on Twitter. “The family of @bellhooks is sad to announce the passing of our sister, aunt, great aunt and great great aunt,” she tweeted.
Born as Gloria Jean Watkins, hooks adopted her great-grandmother’s name as a pen name, but in lowercase letters in order to distinguish herself from her great-grandmother.
Through her works hooks amplified the experiences of many Black women and WOC. She highlighted how WOC were being ignored by the mainstream feminist movement which was dominated by middle-class white women. And it was the frustration borne from that feeling that hooks really struck on.
Reading her words, women like me felt finally our experiences were being validated in some way. As WOC we move in a world that is marked by both racism and sexism. This, along with class issues combines to create a more intersectional whole which has often been ignored by mainstream feminist texts.
In her first major work, Ain’t I a Woman? published in 1981, hooks did not mince her words, writing amongst many other things: “Throughout American history, the racial imperialism of whites has supported the custom of scholars using the term “women” even if they are referring solely to the experience of white women.”
In The New York Times Author Min Jin Lee “For me, reading “Ain’t I A Woman” was as if someone had opened the door, the windows, and raised the roof in my mind. I am neither white nor black, but through her theories, I was able to understand that my body contained historical multitudes and any analysis without such a measured consideration was limited and deeply flawed.” It was a feeling many WOC could relate to.
hooks not only empowered Black women and WOC by writing about our experiences, but her writing also paved the way for feminists like Kimberle Crenshaw who went on to coin the term “intersectional feminism” – how people’s intersecting identities including race, gender, class and sexuality (amongst others) combine to form systems of oppression. WOC for example can be oppressed by both their race and gender.
hooks' works have gone on to transcend race and gender. As the need for a more intersectional feminism has become widely accepted, her works have spoken to women and men across the board. She is being recognised for the simplicity of her words and how accessible they are for all people, not just feminists in academia. And she is being hailed as a “mother” to much of the discourse in feminism we have today. She is also being recognised as a pioneer, talking about racism in feminism when no one else was.
But it cannot be denied that her death has specific resonance for Black women, many of whom found empowerment and solidarity through her words. Women who have gone to achieve big things in their own fields such as writer Roxane Gay : “Oh my heart. bell hooks. May she rest in power. Her loss is incalculable.” And director Ava DuVernay, who tweeted, “bell hooks, your garden was dazzling and will continue to bloom. thank you.”
There will be some who are coming across hooks’ works for the first time and lucky you – she has left behind a great cannon of work which includes more than 40 books, from essay collections to children’s books. Not to mention articles she’s written for publications including The Guardian, : “The professional women feminism liberated are for the most part not interested in the disenfranchised females who must remain subordinated if they are to be free. They do not want to be reminded that we did not end patriarchy, that feminism has become more cool lifestyle than real politics; they see no connection between their fate and the lot of masses of women who daily enter the ranks of the unemployed, the poor and the disenfranchised.”
Her words remain as relevant today as they were back then.
