Hooks, The Significance of Feminist Movement

In Bell Hooks’ The Significance of Feminist Movement, she mainly focuses on sexism and prejudice as a whole in society. Throughout the entire reading, she basically criticized the approach early feminists took in order to eliminate sexual prejudice. She claimed that instead of addressing discrimination against women in society, early feminists instead made it an issue between men and women. Consequently, animosity began to form between males and females which was never the original intent.

hooks also talked about the family’s role in sexism. She explained that because families instill in their young children from an early age that men are to be providers, and women are to stay home and care for the children, when those same children grow up, they tend to do just that. She believed that because of this tradition, whether purposely or indirectly, young girls are being raised to believe that they are somehow underneath men. Obviously, she then went on to stress the importance that such a stereotype be removed, especially from households.

In addition, hooks also made several statements suggesting that if sexism is removed from society, then ALL discrimination would soon follow. However, while I understood her point, removing one form of prejudice would in no way immediately eliminate all of them. With that said, removing sexism from our way of thinking would definitely be a step in the right direction. In order for society to continue to progress, ALL discrimination, racial or otherwise, needs to be removed, which is obvious.

Woman's Place In Man's Life Cycle

After reading Carol Gilligan’s A Woman’s Place In Man’s Life Cycle, I got the impression that she had a different viewpoint on feminism than the other writers in this section. She to wrote about the way women are mistreated in society, but she didn’t really suggest a solution to stop it from continuing. She talked about how even at an early age men are encouraged to be more independent and self-reliant, while women are urged to develop relationships with others that they can depend on. Then, later on in life, those same women tend to resort back to those same tendencies and become unable to take care of themselves. Honestly, I tend to agree with Gilligan in the sense that if a girl was raised from an early age to be self-reliant, then she would grow up to be a strong, independent woman.

Another issue Gilligan brought up that caught my attention was when she began talking about how women are usually close to their mothers throughout their lives, while men usually try to break away. She then foolishly tried to tie that in with the assumption that men aren’t usually good with relationships; however, I beg to differ. I think every situation is different when it comes to relationships, and by no means does a man’s relationship with his mother OUTRIGHT determine how he’ll fair in relationships with other women. That alone is a stereotype about men; while it may be true in some cases, it definitely isn’t in ALL. Although Gilligan’s writing was confusing at times, she definitely made some very good, valid points.