bell hooks - Race and Feminism

bell hooks was a pioneering feminist scholar whose work explored the intersectionality of race, gender, and class, particularly in media representation. She argued that mainstream media often reinforces patriarchal and racial power structures, positioning women—and particularly women of color—as passive objects within these systems. According to hooks, these representations perpetuate a narrow view of both women’s roles and the experiences of marginalized groups. In The Will to Change (2004), hooks asserts: “Patriarchy has no gender. It is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially women, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak.”

A critical aspect of hooks’ theory is her critique of the objectification of women in media, especially through the male gaze. She highlights how women, particularly women of color, are often reduced to their physicality or stereotyped roles, thereby diminishing their agency. In her essay The Oppositional Gaze (1992), hooks writes: “The representation of black womanhood in mainstream media continues to reflect a legacy of racist and sexist stereotypes…white patriarchal structures attempt to render black women as voiceless objects of desire.” This critique challenges the typical portrayal of women, especially women of color, in Hollywood and popular culture.

A prominent figure who has navigated these dynamics is Beyoncé, whose career hooks has analyzed in terms of both empowerment and exploitation. hooks acknowledges Beyoncé’s complex role in challenging stereotypes, noting that her music, such as in Lemonade, offers a feminist and racial counter-narrative, while also critiquing the ways she has been commodified. As hooks writes, Beyoncé is both an agent of empowerment and subject to the exploitative practices of the media industry, reflecting the duality of empowerment and objectification that women, particularly women of color, face in the public sphere.

For hooks, feminist media must subvert these limiting portrayals by providing space for women’s diverse voices, especially those from marginalized communities, to reclaim agency and authenticity. “Feminism is for everybody,” hooks famously says, advocating for an inclusive feminism that challenges both racial and gender inequalities.

Questions to Check Learning

How does bell hooks connect race and gender in her analysis of media representations?

What is the significance of bell hooks’ assertion that “Patriarchy has no gender”?

How does bell hooks critique the objectification of women in media?

How does bell hooks’ analysis of black womanhood in media challenge traditional representations?

In what ways does Beyoncé’s work both challenge and reflect the issues raised by bell hooks in her theory?

How does Beyoncé’s Lemonade offer a counter-narrative to mainstream representations of women of color?

What does bell hooks mean when she argues that mainstream media represents black women as “voiceless objects of desire”?

What does bell hooks mean by “Feminism is for everybody,” and how does this connect to her analysis of media representation?