Editing Bell hooks (section)

== Legacy and impact ==
<!--Per [[MOS:PERSONAL]], the guidance on capitalizing names: "An exception [to capitalizing names as proper nouns] is made when the lowercase variant has received regular and established use in reliable independent sources. In these cases, the name is still capitalized when at the beginning of a sentence, per the normal rules of English." Do not lower-case the subject's name at the beginning of sentences.-->

Bell hooks was included in [[Utne Reader]]'s 1995 "100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life"<ref name="p853">{{cite web | last=Brozan | first=Nadine | title=CHRONICLE | website=The New York Times | date=January 23, 1995 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/23/nyregion/chronicle-537295.html | access-date=August 22, 2024}}</ref> and included in [[Time (magazine)|TIME magazine]]'s "100 Women of the Year" in 2020, where she was described as "that rare rock star of a public intellectual who reaches wide by being accessible".<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2020-03-05 |title=bell hooks: 100 Women of the Year |url=https://time.com/5793676/bell-hooks-100-women-of-the-year/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref>

With a literary repertoire comprising over 30 books and contributions to prominent magazines such as Ms., Essence, and [[Tricycle: The Buddhist Review]], hooks commands attention with her blend of social commentary, autobiography, and feminist critique. Regardless of the subject matter, her writings consistently display scholarly rigor conveyed through accessible prose.

Prior to her tenure at Berea College, hooks held teaching positions at esteemed institutions like [[Stanford]], Yale, and [[The City College of New York]]. Her influence transcends academia, as evidenced by her residencies both in the United States and abroad. In 2014, [[St. Norbert College]] dedicated an entire year to celebrating her contributions with "A Year of bell hooks".<ref>{{Cite web |title=year of bell hooks {{!}} St. Norbert College |url=https://www.snc.edu/cvc/images/programs/2013-14/bellhooks/#:~:text=In%20its%20inaugural%20year,%20the,April%2015-17,%202014. |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=www.snc.edu |language=en}}</ref>

The popularity of hooks' writing surged amidst [[United States racial unrest (2020–2023)|the racial justice movements]] ignited by the deaths of [[George Floyd]] and [[Breonna Taylor]] in 2020, with her book ''[[All About Love: New Visions]]'' entering the New York Times bestseller list over 20 years after its publication.<ref name="o571">{{cite web | author=The Associated Press | title=A new generation of readers embraces bell hooks' 'All About Love' | website=NBC News | date=March 12, 2024 | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bell-hooks-all-about-love-success-posthumous-rcna143020 | access-date=August 22, 2024}}</ref><!--Commenting out the following as it is entirely original research. Small portions could be incorporated into the narrative on her writing, but secondary sources are preferable.

==Influences==
[[File:Raffi-kojian 20180402 181909701.jpg|300px|thumb|A Bell Hooks quote graffiti (translated to Armenian) on a wall in [[Yerevan]] in the days leading up to [[2018 Armenian revolution|Armenia's Velvet Revolution]]. The original quote is "To be oppressed means to be deprived of your ability to choose."]]
Figures who influenced hooks include African-American [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]] and feminist [[Sojourner Truth]] (whose speech ''Ain't I a Woman?'' inspired her first major work), Brazilian educator [[Paulo Freire]] (whose perspectives on education she embraces in her theory of engaged pedagogy), Peruvian theologian and [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] priest [[Gustavo Gutiérrez]], psychologist [[Erich Fromm]], playwright [[Lorraine Hansberry]], [[Buddhist]] monk [[Thich Nhat Hanh]], African-American writer [[James Baldwin (writer)|James Baldwin]], Guyanese historian [[Walter Rodney]], African-American [[black nationalist]] leader [[Malcolm X]], and African-American [[civil rights movement|civil rights]] leader [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] (who addresses how the strength of love unites communities).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iapl.info/CONFERENCE_HISTORY/IAPL_2001/iapl_2001_keynote_speaker.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070131175411/http://www.iapl.info/CONFERENCE_HISTORY/IAPL_2001/iapl_2001_keynote_speaker.htm |url-status=dead |title=Notes on IAPL 2001 Keynote Speaker, Bell Hooks|archive-date=January 31, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1844|title=Shambhalasun.com|website=shambhalasun.com}}</ref> She said of Martin Luther King Jr.'s notion of a beloved community, "He had a profound awareness that the people involved in oppressive institutions will not change from the logics and practices of domination without engagement with those who are striving for a better way."<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Beloved Community: A Conversation between Bell Hooks and George Brosi|journal = Appalachian Heritage|date = January 1, 2012|issn = 1940-5081|pages = 76–86|volume = 40|issue = 4|doi = 10.1353/aph.2012.0109|first1 = George|last1 = Brosi|first2 = bell|last2 = hooks|s2cid = 144664893}}</ref>
== ''Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom'' ==
In her 1994 book ''Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom,'' hooks writes about a transgressive approach in education where educators can teach students to "transgress" against what she sees as racial, sexual, and class boundaries.<ref name="1952- 11">{{Cite book|title=Teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom|last=hooks|first=bell|isbn=9781135200015|location=New York|pages=11|oclc=877868009|date=March 18, 2014}}</ref> She sees the classroom as a source of constraint but also a potential source of liberation. She argues that teachers' use of control and power over students dulls the students' enthusiasm and teaches obedience to authority, "confin[ing] each pupil to a rote, assembly-line approach to learning".<ref>hooks, ''Teaching to Transgress'', page 12.</ref> She advocates that universities should encourage students and teachers to transgress, and seeks ways to use collaboration to make learning more relaxing and exciting. She describes teaching as a performative act and teachers as catalysts that invite everyone to become more engaged and activated. According to hooks, the performative aspect of learning "offers the space for change, invention, spontaneous shifts, that can serve as a catalyst drawing out the unique elements in each classroom".<ref name="1952- 11"/> She  dedicates a chapter of the book to [[Paulo Freire]], written in a form of a dialogue between herself, Gloria Watkins, and her writing voice, Bell Hooks.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/teachingtotransg0000hook/page/45|title=Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom|last=hooks|first=bell|date=1994|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415908085|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/teachingtotransg0000hook/page/45 45–59]|oclc=30668295}}</ref> In the last chapter of the book, hooks raises the question of eros or the erotic in classroom environments. According to hooks, eros and the erotic do not need to be denied for learning to take place. She argues that one of the central tenets of [[feminist pedagogy]] has been to subvert the [[Mind–body dualism|mind-body dualism]] and allow oneself as a teacher to be whole in the classroom, and as a consequence wholehearted.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/teachingtotransg0000hook/page/193|title=Teaching to transgress|last=hooks|date=1994|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/teachingtotransg0000hook/page/193 193]|isbn=9780415908085}}</ref>

==''Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope''==
In 2004, 10 years after the success of ''Teaching to Transgress'', Bell Hooks published ''Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope''. In this book, hooks offers advice about how to continue to make the classroom what she sees as a place that is life-sustaining and mind expanding, a place of liberating mutuality where teacher and student together work in partnership.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|first=bell|last=hooks|title=Teaching community : a pedagogy of hope|date=2003|publisher=[[Routledge]]|location=Abingdon, England|isbn=9781135457921|pages=XV|oclc=846494699}}</ref> She writes that education as a practice of freedom enables us to confront feelings of loss and restore our sense of connections and consequently teaches us how to create community.<ref name=":02"/>

==''Feminist Theory''==
{{main| Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center}}
In 1984, hooks published ''[[Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center]]'' . Here she argues that popular [[feminist theory]] has marginalized diverse voices, and states: "To be in the margin is to be part of the whole but outside the main body."<ref>hooks (1984), ''Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center'', p. xvi.</ref> She argues that it is impossible for feminism to make women equal to men because in Western society not all men are equal. She says, "Women in lower class and poor groups, particularly those who are non-white, would not have defined [[women's liberation]] as women gaining social equality with men since they are continually reminded in their everyday lives that all women do not share a common social status."<ref>hooks (1984), ''Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center''.</ref>

She offers what she sees as a new, more inclusive feminist theory. Her theory encourages the long-standing idea of sisterhood, but advocates that women acknowledge their differences while accepting each other. She urges feminists to consider gender's relation to race, class, and sex, a concept which came to be known as [[intersectionality]]. She argues for the importance of male involvement in the movement toward equality, as necessary for change to occur. She calls for a restructuring of the cultural framework of power to one that does not find the oppression of others necessary.<ref>hooks (1984), ''Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center'', p. 92.</ref>

Part of this restructuring involves accepting men into the feminist movement, so that a separatist ideology is discouraged in favor of an inclusive one. Additionally, hooks wants feminism to move away from the predominant views of bourgeois white women and toward a movement of varied social classes, and both genders, for the raising up of women.<ref>hooks (1984), ''Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center'', p. 74.</ref>

Another part of restructuring the movement involves education: hooks observes that there is an anti-intellectual bias among the masses. Poor people do not want to hear from intellectuals, according to hooks, because they are different and have different ideas. This bias against intellectuals leads the poor to shun those people of poor backgrounds who have risen up to graduation from post-secondary education, because they are no longer like the rest of the masses. In order for society to achieve equality, hooks says people must be able to learn from those who have been able to break these stereotypes. This separation of the poor from their potential teachers leads to further inequality, according to hooks, and in order for the feminist movement to succeed, it must be able to bridge the education gap and relate to those at the lower end of the economic sphere. In the chapter "Rethinking The Nature of Work", hooks criticizes those in the feminist movement who "do not have radical political perspectives" and accept the existing economic structure, especially when they are successful within it.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center|last = hooks|first = bell|publisher = Pluto Press|year = 1984|isbn = 978-0-89608-614-2|location = London|page = 102}}</ref>

==''Reel to Real''==
In her book ''Reel to Real'', hooks discusses the effect that movies have on the individual, with specific emphasis on the black female spectator. She argues that, although we know that movies are not real life, "no matter how sophisticated our strategies of critique and intervention, [we] are usually seduced, at least for a time, by the images we see on the screen. They have power over us, and we have no power over them."{{sfnp|hooks|1996}}

She focuses on what she sees as problematic racial representations. She describes her experiences growing up watching mainstream movies and
other media and believes that film's representations have largely negated the black female.{{sfnp|hooks|1996}} She states, "Representation is the 'hot' issue right now because it's a major realm of power for any system of domination. We keep coming back to the question of representation because identity is always about representation".{{sfnp|hooks|1996}}

==''Black Looks: Race and Representation''==
In her book ''Black Looks: Race and Representation'', in the chapter "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators", hooks discusses what she calls an "[[oppositional gaze]]". She describes it as a way for black people, especially black women, to develop a critical approach  to mass media. Writing that for her this "gaze" had always been political, hooks says that the idea began when she thought about incidents  of black slaves being punished merely for gazing at their white owners. She wondered how much such experience had been absorbed and carried through the generations to affect black spectatorship and black parenting.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |first=bell |title=Black Looks: Race and Representation |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |publisher=South End Press |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105/page/n62 115]}}</ref> hooks writes that because she remembered how she had dared to look at adults as a child, even though she was forbidden to, she knew that slaves had looked too.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks|url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244/page/n120 115]–116}}</ref> Drawing on [[Michel Foucault]]'s thoughts about power always coexisting with the possibility of resistance, hooks discusses this looking as a form of resistance, as a way of finding voice and declaring: "Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality."<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks|url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244/page/n121 116]}}</ref>

She writes that when black people started watching films and television in the United States, they realized that mass media was part of the system  of [[white supremacy]], and thus watching became a space for black people to develop a critical spectatorship; an oppositional gaze. Prior to racial integration, according to hooks, black viewers "... experienced visual pleasure in a context where looking was also about contestation and confrontation".<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244/page/n122 117]}}</ref> However, she avers that this spectatorship was quite different for black women than for black men. According to hooks, black men could renounce the racism of the screen images while also imagining "[[Phallocentrism|phallocentric]]" power by objectifying the white female cast as the object of male desire; privately rebelling against a reality in which black men were punished for publicly gazing at white women.<ref name="Black Looks, p. 118">{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105/page/n62 118]}}</ref>

For hooks, black women's spectatorship was more complicated. In a media environment that was both racist and sexist, black female bodies were largely absent from early motion pictures and, when present, were there in maidservant roles to "... enhance and maintain white womanhood as object of the phallocentric gaze".<ref name="Black Looks, p. 118"/><ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105/page/n63 119]}}</ref> The response of many black women, according to hooks, was to turn away in alienation from such images.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105/page/n63 120]}}</ref>  Another was to evade conflict and be entertained by identifying with the white female object of desire.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244/page/n125 120]-121}}</ref> A third possibility was the oppositional gaze, a willingness to stare critically at the on-screen images with the intent to change reality.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105/page/n64 122]}}</ref>

According to hooks, the more black women are able to construct themselves as subjects rather than objects in daily life, the more they are likely to develop an oppositional gaze.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |page=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_105/page/n67 127]}}</ref> This process is affected in turn by the representation of black women in mass media. Thus, hooks stresses the importance of black female film makers such as [[Julie Dash]], [[Ayoka Chenzira]], and [[Zeinabu Davis]] among others.<ref>{{cite book |last=hooks |title=Black Looks |url=https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244 |url-access=limited |date=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blacklooksracere00hook_244/page/n133 128]–131}}</ref>
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