English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela - bell hooks.webm
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1 00:00:03,860 --> 00:00:06,239 When we talk about the beginnings of feminism, 2 00:00:06,263 --> 00:00:09,010 it's usual to cite Wollstonecraft or De Beauvoir. 3 00:00:09,356 --> 00:00:12,641 But feminism has had several waves and currents. 4 00:00:12,665 --> 00:00:15,460 And in each one there have been thinkers 5 00:00:15,484 --> 00:00:18,368 and activists who have opened new paths. 6 00:00:18,392 --> 00:00:22,178 We owe to bell hooks, among other things, to introduction 7 00:00:22,202 --> 00:00:26,220 of race and class variable, broadening the feminist perspective. 8 00:00:26,350 --> 00:00:29,935 hooks was born in 1952 in the United States, 9 00:00:29,959 --> 00:00:34,400 Kentucky, within a working class family. 10 00:00:34,620 --> 00:00:38,306 She grew up in a town where whites and blacks lived 11 00:00:38,330 --> 00:00:42,400 separated and attended primary and secondary school in segregated schools. 12 00:00:43,020 --> 00:00:45,831 A teacher who was aware of her capacities 13 00:00:45,855 --> 00:00:48,880 recommended her going to Stanford University. 14 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,656 So she did, where she took an English degree, 15 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:56,450 and she had her first contact with feminist struggles. 16 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,890 Her academic career at Stanford developed greatly. 17 00:01:01,300 --> 00:01:04,071 She completed her doctoral thesis at the University of California 18 00:01:04,095 --> 00:01:06,950 where she was a professor for several years. 19 00:01:07,340 --> 00:01:09,525 But, in order to understand her contribution as a thinker 20 00:01:09,549 --> 00:01:12,510 understanding her context is mandatory. 21 00:01:13,030 --> 00:01:16,315 In the 1960s, when the student's movement 22 00:01:16,339 --> 00:01:19,162 against the Vietnam War was active, there where 23 00:01:19,186 --> 00:01:23,057 two big struggles in the United States: one for the civil rights 24 00:01:23,081 --> 00:01:25,446 of the black people and the struggle of the feminist movement. 25 00:01:25,470 --> 00:01:30,070 Neither in one nor in the other did black women, as hooks, have a place. 26 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:34,510 Women were second in the fight for civil rights. 27 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,078 And the feminist movement, on the other hand, only 28 00:01:37,102 --> 00:01:39,770 contemplated the situation of white women. 29 00:01:40,010 --> 00:01:44,463 hooks' voice served to denounce the specific oppression they experienced 30 00:01:44,487 --> 00:01:48,590 black women and paved the way to reconcile both struggles. 31 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:55,145 This path is worked in her first book, published in 1981: 32 00:01:55,169 --> 00:01:57,432 "ain't i a woman? black women and feminism". 33 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:04,770 The title refers to Sojourner Truth's speech in 1851. 34 00:02:04,948 --> 00:02:07,881 Truth, a former slave, publicly denounced 35 00:02:07,905 --> 00:02:11,144 the domination she suffered as a black woman. 36 00:02:11,820 --> 00:02:17,265 A century later, other black thinkers, such as hooks, would address 37 00:02:17,289 --> 00:02:23,000 that path, but also her contemporaries Angela Davis and Audre Lord. 38 00:02:23,739 --> 00:02:29,380 hooks published more than 40 books in which she addressed a multitude of topics. 39 00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:35,438 Some of her main contributions to feminist thought are: 40 00:02:35,463 --> 00:02:39,180 1- Intersectionality. Where struggles come together. 41 00:02:39,740 --> 00:02:43,680 hooks highlights the importance of intersectional feminism. 42 00:02:43,910 --> 00:02:47,295 She says that feminism must go against every 43 00:02:47,319 --> 00:02:50,503 discrimination arising from gender, race 44 00:02:50,527 --> 00:02:53,704 and class, and that this would benefit not only 45 00:02:53,728 --> 00:02:56,930 women but to society as a whole. 46 00:02:57,390 --> 00:03:01,459 In the fight for equal rights it is essential 47 00:03:01,483 --> 00:03:04,730 to analyze the relationship between racism and sexism. 48 00:03:05,270 --> 00:03:07,794 She says that the oppression they experience 49 00:03:07,818 --> 00:03:09,799 cannot be adequately understood if 50 00:03:09,823 --> 00:03:14,560 they exclusively care about gender or race issues isolately. 51 00:03:14,970 --> 00:03:16,450 Those should be worked on together. 52 00:03:17,300 --> 00:03:20,566 2-White feminism is not for all women. 53 00:03:20,590 --> 00:03:23,869 Understanding the feminism of the time, hooks wanted 54 00:03:23,893 --> 00:03:27,165 to take feminism beyond being a political movement 55 00:03:27,189 --> 00:03:30,090 of middle class white women. 56 00:03:30,364 --> 00:03:32,822 She realized that many white feminists 57 00:03:32,846 --> 00:03:34,999 turned their backs on the demands 58 00:03:35,023 --> 00:03:37,117 of black women or that their analysis 59 00:03:37,141 --> 00:03:39,630 or limited their anaylisis to workplace inequalities. 60 00:03:40,980 --> 00:03:43,390 This was not the case for everyone: the women who 61 00:03:43,414 --> 00:03:46,133 opened their eyes to race- and class-related 62 00:03:46,157 --> 00:03:50,680 problems introduced new topics of debate in feminism. 63 00:03:50,780 --> 00:03:55,783 They questioned whether they had to hire someone for housework. 64 00:03:56,300 --> 00:03:58,070 They didn't want to take on that job, 65 00:03:58,095 --> 00:04:00,800 as they had historically been forced to. 66 00:04:01,630 --> 00:04:04,411 But they did not want to participate in the 67 00:04:04,435 --> 00:04:06,810 oppression of women with fewer rights. 68 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,744 According to hooks, some of these women created 69 00:04:10,768 --> 00:04:14,590 positive unions with the women they hired. 70 00:04:15,070 --> 00:04:20,130 From a broader perspective of injustice, they moved forward. 71 00:04:20,670 --> 00:04:23,570 But this was not enough for black women, 72 00:04:24,271 --> 00:04:26,303 who clearly saw that their place wasn't to 73 00:04:26,328 --> 00:04:28,394 take the responsibility for household chores 74 00:04:28,418 --> 00:04:31,210 of those white women who were the protagonists of feminism. 75 00:04:32,866 --> 00:04:37,375 According to hooks, feminism should be for all women 76 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:39,840 and that's why it is necessary to tear down the wall 77 00:04:39,864 --> 00:04:42,420 between white and racialized women. 78 00:04:44,130 --> 00:04:49,621 3-To free yourself from oppression, you must free your body and mind. 79 00:04:49,645 --> 00:04:52,945 hooks says black women are oppressed 80 00:04:52,969 --> 00:04:55,160 by the roles and stereotypes of society. 81 00:04:55,450 --> 00:04:58,964 In fact, they have appeared in American culture 82 00:04:58,988 --> 00:05:02,278 as ugly, impure, wild and mentally deficient. 83 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,853 The problem is not only that white society has launched those 84 00:05:07,877 --> 00:05:11,540 stereotypes against black women, but those prejudices 85 00:05:11,564 --> 00:05:15,281 have spread also to black men's mindset and to 86 00:05:15,305 --> 00:05:19,170 black women's perception of themselves. 87 00:05:19,660 --> 00:05:23,026 She says that to combat a collective fight is needed 88 00:05:23,050 --> 00:05:25,700 for the liberation of gender norms. 89 00:05:26,100 --> 00:05:29,073 Women have historically been controlled 90 00:05:29,097 --> 00:05:31,470 and repressed controlling their bodies. 91 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,550 That's why liberating the body is essential to liberate the mind. 92 00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,245 4-Feminism is everyone's responsibility. 93 00:05:40,270 --> 00:05:42,375 hooks argues that feminism 94 00:05:42,399 --> 00:05:44,549 contributes to the development of autonomy 95 00:05:44,574 --> 00:05:47,820 and the empowerment of people, as it helps to free themselves 96 00:05:47,844 --> 00:05:51,090 of restrictive and repressive gender norms. 97 00:05:51,115 --> 00:05:54,437 What creates an unjust society is the 98 00:05:54,461 --> 00:05:56,840 sexism, which not only affects women. 99 00:05:57,150 --> 00:05:58,740 It also oppresses men. 100 00:05:59,180 --> 00:06:01,242 Therefore, man is a member 101 00:06:01,266 --> 00:06:03,110 legitimate of the fight if 102 00:06:03,134 --> 00:06:06,960 accepts women's leadership and feminist politics. 103 00:06:08,100 --> 00:06:12,670 hooks died in 2021 at age 69. 104 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:16,310 But her theoretical contributions remain alive. 105 00:06:16,730 --> 00:06:20,016 The debates that we have today in feminism and in 106 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,860 society follow the path opened by thinkers like her. 107 00:06:25,020 --> 00:06:29,540 White women often talk about the need to break the glass ceiling. 108 00:06:30,030 --> 00:06:33,430 But who cleans the glass left on the floor? 109 00:06:33,930 --> 00:06:36,050 Can men deny privilege? 110 00:06:36,577 --> 00:06:40,170 How can different struggles be reconciled without trampling on each other? 111 00:06:41,100 --> 00:06:43,983 Whoever wants to explore these types of questions, and needs to think 112 00:06:44,007 --> 00:06:47,324 on them, will find countless paths to follow in hooks' books.