bell hooks Ain't I a woman

bell hooks Ain't I a woman

• 1.
  Prepared by İbrahim KOÇ PhDCandidate Istanbul Aydin University
• 2.
  bell hooks Her realname is Gloria Jean Watkins, but she is better known by her pen name bell hooks (intentionally uncapitalized). She is an American leftist author, feminist, postmodern political thinker and cultural critic. Her writing has focused on; • interconnectivity of race • capitalism • gender • systems of oppression and • class domination hooks has addressed race, class, and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism, primarily through a postmodern perspective.
• 3.
  Contents One Sexism and theBlack Female Slave Experience Two Continued Devaluation of Black Womanhood Three The Imperialism of Patriarchy Four Racism and Feminism: The Issue of Accountability Five Black Women and Feminism
• 4.
  Ain’t I aWoman Black Women and Feminism examines; • the impact of sexism on black woman during slavery, • the historic devaluation of black womanhood, • black male sexism, • the marginalization of black women, • racism within the recent women‟s movement and, • black women‟s involvement with feminism It is widely considered as a response to the literature, which spoke to and about white middle-class women and largely ignored black and minority women of lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
• 5.
  • sexism seemsas important as racism as an oppressive force • sexism and racism together caused black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society • black women are all but ignored • feminism is (should be) a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression • scholars deliberately minimize the black female slave experience
• 6.
  The source ofsexism; • white colonizers from Europe brought sexism from their homelands to colonized lands • a black woman slave was usually cheaper than a black man slave on the slave market • planters recognized an economic profit in having black women slaves on purpose of slave breeding • black women‟s perfect obedience made them an ideal subject for slavery
• 7.
  tortures were theinitial stages of an introduction process that would transform the African free human being into a slave. An important part of the slavers‟ mission was transform African people into passive, quiet workers. According to white slave owners and traders point of view in order to show proper slave behaviors Africans should be tortured. Slavers define these tortures as taming. Here taming means turning African people into domestic animals
• 8.
  • to prepareAfricans for the slave market, traders first remove their names and status and then slaves from different parts of Africa were put in same groups so they couldn‟t communicate with the others without a common language. • when they landed, they were ready to do whatever their white masters ordered because they want to survive.
• 9.
  Black men weredehumanized solely as a result of not being able to be patriarchs implies that the subjugation of black women was essential to the black male‟s development of a positive self- concept. This idea only served to support a sexist social order. (p.20)
• 10.
  • white slavetraders didn‟t give any harm to the masculinity of black men • they could have physically castrated all black men aboard slave ships, but they didn‟t (p.21) • but black women were forced to assume a “masculine” role • Institutionalized sexism was a social system that protected male sexuality and it socially legitimized sexual exploitation of black females
• 11.
  • the politicalaim of categorical rape of black women by white males was to obtain absolute obedience to the white imperialistic order • The brutal treatment of enslaved black women by white men a direct consequence of misogynist attitudes toward women that prevailed in American society • the Salem Witchcraft trials were a message to all women that unless they remained within passive, subordinate roles they would be punished, even put to death
• 12.
  • colonial whitemen expressed their fear and hatred of women-hood by institutionalizing sexist discrimination and sexist oppression • after the 19th century the shift away from the image of white women as sinful and sexual to that of white women as virtuous lady (mother and helpmeet) occurred at the same time as mass sexual exploitation of enslaved black women • they were naturally seen as the embodiment of female evil and sexual lust
• 13.
  • contemporary sexistscholars minimize the impact of sexual exploitation of black women on the black female psyche and argue that white men used the rape of black women to further emasculate black men • breeding was oppressive to all fertile black slave women • sex roles in black slave subculture mirrored those of white America. Cooking, cleaning, nursing, washing up, mending the clothes and even minor farm work were seen as women work.
• 14.
  • in thesecond chapter the writer discusses the social and political impact of sexual exploitation of black women during the slavery period • sexual exploitation and sexism against black women is still valid • predominant image of black women is that of the “fallen” woman, the slut, the whore, the prostitute • white men continued to sexually assault black women long after slavery ended
• 15.
  According to hooks,in terms of power, it goes something like this: 1. White men: can oppress all of the following. 2 – 3 White women - Black men: Black men are oppressed by white men, but can in turn oppress black women. They can also oppress white women through gender, though it might be tricky. Rather, this is the most accepted form of interracial marriage. White women can be oppressed by white men, but they can also oppress black women, and may be even more ruthless doing so, to enact a power they would not be able to yield otherwise. 4. Black women: Can be oppressed by all the above. Their experiences are largely ignored by both the feminist and the racial equality movements, erasing their history and negating their existence.
• 16.
  Most Americans, includingblack people, acknowledge and accept this hierarchy; they have internalized it either consciously or unconsciously. And for this reason, all through American history, black male rape of white women has attracted much more attention and is seen as much more significant than rape of black women by either white or black men (p.53)
• 17.
  • many blackwomen attempted to shift the focus of attention away from sexuality by emphasizing their commitment to motherhood • white male slave-owners created a body of myths to discredit the contributions of black females • even black women see themselves through these negative myths and stereotypes • the term „matriarchs‟ is no way accurately described the social status of black women in America. No matriarchy has ever existed in the United States • as a consequence of all these facts mass sexual exploitation of enslaved black women was a direct consequence of the anti-women sexual politics of colonial patriarchal America