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A review by savaging
Feminism Is for Everybody by bell hooks
3.0
Am I allowed to not love this book? I loved the idea behind it -- write a book which can be shared with regular, non-academic people to demonstrate the importance of feminism. I like that bell hooks connects feminism with anti-racism and working class solidarity. I like the structure of little 4-page chapters on each subject. I also appreciate that bell hooks puts a lot of work into welcoming men into feminism. I don't think every feminist needs to do that, but I'm glad that some people do.
But I couldn't fathom giving this book to someone who was new to the ideas. It felt as jargon-y as much academic writing, and left me hungry for interesting stories or humor or compelling ways of illustrating the ideas. All this flat summarizing doesn't actually feel accessible to me.
Also bell hooks has this unwavering, authoritative voice which feels powerful -- until you disagree with her. And then you're sitting there liking Beyonce and asking forgiveness for being a bad feminist.
But I couldn't fathom giving this book to someone who was new to the ideas. It felt as jargon-y as much academic writing, and left me hungry for interesting stories or humor or compelling ways of illustrating the ideas. All this flat summarizing doesn't actually feel accessible to me.
Also bell hooks has this unwavering, authoritative voice which feels powerful -- until you disagree with her. And then you're sitting there liking Beyonce and asking forgiveness for being a bad feminist.