I'm interested in feminism or anyone who currently identifies as a feminist but hasn't yet read this. hooks has a very accessible writing style and does an impeccable job of pointing out the flaws in the feminist movement and putting forth ideas of what feminism as a movement should be if it has any hope of success.
I much respect this as a commentary on the trajectory of feminist thought & action from the sixties to the eighties, and a starting point fr theorists & activists to interrogate their relationships to feminism, to structures of power & dominance, to labour and consumption and culture, to each other and to women excluded from or alienated by feminism.
It is, in places, tied to its historical moment & particular vantage point -- for me the sexual oppression, specifically its treatment of lesbianism and heterosexism, felt quite uncomfortable ? mostly because political lesbianism is def no longer at the vanguard of feminist action, so the focus on solidarity with the heterosexual majority and criticism of rhetoric that alienates heterosexual women sometimes reads as hostility towards lesbianism, even though i absolutely do not believe that to be hooks' intention. it's compounded by the fact that she seems to be writing as an ally, & so her treatment of 'heterosexism' feels much flatter & more rushed than her ongoing attention to 'capitalism', 'white supremacy' & 'patriarchy'. this, like the lack of attention to, fr example, trans identity or disability as other marginal positions, demonstrates other needs & positions that feminist theory & activism of the last forty years have identified and incorporated, esp intersectional theory.
The fact that much of the rest of hooks' work can be read, if not specifically then generally, in dialogue w twenty-first century feminism shows that it can still be valuable, as a tool fr those w least access to & most need of feminist movement, & as a touchstone for those who identify with & advocate for feminism, to empower people to thought & action, to aid in the re-conceptualisation of power, work and relationships and to re-invigorate the spirit of solidarity across disparate & overlapping communities. not a perfect or absolutely authoritative text, & one that i don't feel entirely convinced by, but worth reading, i think, to challenge & to elaborate & to move forward
