Scan barcode
A review by isabelsdigest
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
“When I was a kid I thought there must be some way I could perform being good, perform being ladylike to the point of being safe from sexism, racism, and other violence.” (Mikki Kendall)
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgotby Mikki Kendall explores the side that mainstream white feminism constantly silences. As a woman from a third-world country living that has attended prestigious universities with a predominantly white student body, this book made me feel seen.
However, more than seen, I felt heard. As someone used to the othering inflicted on me, I still had a visceral reaction while reading what I had no words to explain. Sometimes we feel like traitors for not prioritizing gender over race and class struggles. Sometimes we get consumed by guilt for not relating to our white sisters and their struggles. Sometimes, it is impossible to smile when they break the glass ceiling and we are the ones left to clean. That is what it feels like to be a woman like me, a woman like Kendall, and this book compiles those feelings and validates them.
The term ‘Hood feminism’ is what I know as Postcolonial or Transnational Feminism. It doesn’t matter if you as a reader have no idea what it means or if you know it by any other name, but what it encloses will be apparent to you 10 pages in. Independently if you are white or not, female, male, or non-binary, I think this is such a good read for educating ourselves in many areas.
If we pay attention to the title, the most salient words are ‘notes’, ‘women’, ‘forgot’. ‘Notes’ marks the structure of this book. Kendall breaks her arguments apart and every chapter covers a topic that is relevant to women and their adjacent struggles that are often not included when we talk about feminist struggles. That question, ‘what is a feminist struggle?’ is the recurrent question of each chapter.
Now, my critique comes because due to the structure of ‘notes’ there is no final resolution but the conclusions of each chapter. ‘Notes’ is different from an essay, memoir, new journalism, reportage, thesis, and any other type of writing form you could think about. Think about your personal notes. They are scattered with a monotonous and practiced routine, and they are not always connected or polished as you will use them later for a rounder work. The conclusions at every chapter of Hood Feminism are well-wrapped and Kendall masters the construction of chapters, so they are not exactly 'notes', yet they are not very polished or innovative as a developed argument. Each chapter is enjoyable, counts with research and personal experiences to back up claims, and in general, they feel pretty compelling when taking the core question about what is feminism issue. Nevertheless, after a few chapters, this formula becomes repetitive and somewhat tiresome as we are just restating the same concept with the only variable being the topic of the chapter. Yes, we have the issue, arguments to include it as a feminist issue, and the convincing ending of the chapter, but it leads nowhere beyond the exposition of several problems.
Maybe I find it repetitive because I’ve had already considered almost all the topics Kendall covers as feminist issues. After all, I am from Mexico and I am not ignorant of what transnational feminism should care about. From that perspective, I need to give Kendall a break for being somewhat formulaic because yes, I felt heard, yet I wanted to get something unknown for me and my experience.
I will be recommending Hood Feminism to everyone I encounter, especially those with a different life experience than me. Hood Feminism is targeted at those that benefit from patriarchal relations, white supremacy, and class privileges, as they are those that stir ‘the movement’ into forgetting those of us who completely understand every part of this book before even reading it.
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgotby Mikki Kendall explores the side that mainstream white feminism constantly silences. As a woman from a third-world country living that has attended prestigious universities with a predominantly white student body, this book made me feel seen.
However, more than seen, I felt heard. As someone used to the othering inflicted on me, I still had a visceral reaction while reading what I had no words to explain. Sometimes we feel like traitors for not prioritizing gender over race and class struggles. Sometimes we get consumed by guilt for not relating to our white sisters and their struggles. Sometimes, it is impossible to smile when they break the glass ceiling and we are the ones left to clean. That is what it feels like to be a woman like me, a woman like Kendall, and this book compiles those feelings and validates them.
The term ‘Hood feminism’ is what I know as Postcolonial or Transnational Feminism. It doesn’t matter if you as a reader have no idea what it means or if you know it by any other name, but what it encloses will be apparent to you 10 pages in. Independently if you are white or not, female, male, or non-binary, I think this is such a good read for educating ourselves in many areas.
If we pay attention to the title, the most salient words are ‘notes’, ‘women’, ‘forgot’. ‘Notes’ marks the structure of this book. Kendall breaks her arguments apart and every chapter covers a topic that is relevant to women and their adjacent struggles that are often not included when we talk about feminist struggles. That question, ‘what is a feminist struggle?’ is the recurrent question of each chapter.
Now, my critique comes because due to the structure of ‘notes’ there is no final resolution but the conclusions of each chapter. ‘Notes’ is different from an essay, memoir, new journalism, reportage, thesis, and any other type of writing form you could think about. Think about your personal notes. They are scattered with a monotonous and practiced routine, and they are not always connected or polished as you will use them later for a rounder work. The conclusions at every chapter of Hood Feminism are well-wrapped and Kendall masters the construction of chapters, so they are not exactly 'notes', yet they are not very polished or innovative as a developed argument. Each chapter is enjoyable, counts with research and personal experiences to back up claims, and in general, they feel pretty compelling when taking the core question about what is feminism issue. Nevertheless, after a few chapters, this formula becomes repetitive and somewhat tiresome as we are just restating the same concept with the only variable being the topic of the chapter. Yes, we have the issue, arguments to include it as a feminist issue, and the convincing ending of the chapter, but it leads nowhere beyond the exposition of several problems.
Maybe I find it repetitive because I’ve had already considered almost all the topics Kendall covers as feminist issues. After all, I am from Mexico and I am not ignorant of what transnational feminism should care about. From that perspective, I need to give Kendall a break for being somewhat formulaic because yes, I felt heard, yet I wanted to get something unknown for me and my experience.
I will be recommending Hood Feminism to everyone I encounter, especially those with a different life experience than me. Hood Feminism is targeted at those that benefit from patriarchal relations, white supremacy, and class privileges, as they are those that stir ‘the movement’ into forgetting those of us who completely understand every part of this book before even reading it.