English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela - bell hooks.webm

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When we talk about the
beginnings of feminism,

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it's usual to cite
Wollstonecraft or De Beauvoir.

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But feminism has had
several waves and currents.

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And in each one there
have been thinkers

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and activists who
have opened new paths.

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We owe to bell hooks, among
other things, to introduction

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of race and class variable,
broadening the feminist perspective.

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hooks was born in
1952 in the United States,

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Kentucky, within a
working class family.

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She grew up in a town
where whites and blacks lived

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separated and attended primary and
secondary school in segregated schools.

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A teacher who was
aware of her capacities

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recommended her going
to Stanford University.

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So she did, where she
took an English degree,

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and she had her first
contact with feminist struggles.

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Her academic career at
Stanford developed greatly.

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She completed her doctoral
thesis at the University of California

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where she was a
professor for several years.

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But, in order to understand
her contribution as a thinker

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understanding her
context is mandatory.

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In the 1960s, when
the student's movement

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against the Vietnam War
was active, there where

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two big struggles in the United
States: one for the civil rights

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of the black people and the
struggle of the feminist movement.

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Neither in one nor in the other did
black women, as hooks, have a place.

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Women were second
in the fight for civil rights.

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And the feminist movement,
on the other hand, only

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contemplated the
situation of white women.

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hooks' voice served to denounce the
specific oppression they experienced

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black women and paved the
way to reconcile both struggles.

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This path is worked in her
first book, published in 1981:

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"ain't i a woman? black
women and feminism".

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The title refers to Sojourner
Truth's speech in 1851.

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Truth, a former slave,
publicly denounced

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the domination she
suffered as a black woman.

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A century later, other black thinkers,
such as hooks, would address

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that path, but also her contemporaries
Angela Davis and Audre Lord.

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hooks published more than 40 books in
which she addressed a multitude of topics.

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Some of her main contributions
to feminist thought are:

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1- Intersectionality. Where
struggles come together.

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hooks highlights the importance
of intersectional feminism.

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She says that feminism
must go against every

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discrimination arising
from gender, race

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and class, and that this
would benefit not only

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women but to society as a whole.

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In the fight for equal
rights it is essential

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to analyze the relationship
between racism and sexism.

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She says that the
oppression they experience

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cannot be adequately
understood if

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they exclusively care about
gender or race issues isolately.

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Those should be
worked on together.

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2-White feminism
is not for all women.

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Understanding the feminism
of the time, hooks wanted

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to take feminism beyond
being a political movement

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of middle class white women.

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She realized that
many white feminists

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turned their backs
on the demands

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of black women or
that their analysis

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or limited their anaylisis
to workplace inequalities.

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This was not the case for
everyone: the women who

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opened their eyes to
race- and class-related

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problems introduced new
topics of debate in feminism.

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They questioned whether they
had to hire someone for housework.

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They didn't want
to take on that job,

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as they had historically
been forced to.

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But they did not want
to participate in the

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oppression of women
with fewer rights.

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According to hooks, some
of these women created

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positive unions with
the women they hired.

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From a broader perspective of
injustice, they moved forward.

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But this was not
enough for black women,

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who clearly saw that
their place wasn't to

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take the responsibility
for household chores

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of those white women who
were the protagonists of feminism.

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According to hooks, feminism
should be for all women

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and that's why it is
necessary to tear down the wall

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between white and
racialized women.

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3-To free yourself from oppression,
you must free your body and mind.

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hooks says black
women are oppressed

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by the roles and
stereotypes of society.

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In fact, they have
appeared in American culture

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as ugly, impure, wild
and mentally deficient.

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The problem is not only that
white society has launched those

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stereotypes against black
women, but those prejudices

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have spread also to
black men's mindset and to

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black women's
perception of themselves.

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She says that to combat
a collective fight is needed

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for the liberation
of gender norms.

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Women have historically
been controlled

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and repressed
controlling their bodies.

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That's why liberating the body
is essential to liberate the mind.

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4-Feminism is
everyone's responsibility.

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hooks argues that feminism

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contributes to the
development of autonomy

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and the empowerment of people,
as it helps to free themselves

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of restrictive and
repressive gender norms.

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What creates an
unjust society is the

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sexism, which not
only affects women.

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It also oppresses men.

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Therefore, man is a member

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legitimate of the fight if

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accepts women's leadership
and feminist politics.

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hooks died in 2021 at age 69.

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But her theoretical
contributions remain alive.

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The debates that we have
today in feminism and in

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society follow the path
opened by thinkers like her.

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White women often talk about
the need to break the glass ceiling.

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But who cleans the
glass left on the floor?

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Can men deny privilege?

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How can different struggles be
reconciled without trampling on each other?

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Whoever wants to explore these
types of questions, and needs to think

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on them, will find countless
paths to follow in hooks' books.