41 pages • 1 hour read
Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 18-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary: “Feminist Spirituality”
In this chapter, hooks tackles “the sexism of male-dominated religions” (105), while explaining possible ways feminists can “re-envision spirituality” (106). The basis of fundamentalist Christianity is patriarchal in nature, simply because of its focus on creation and its tendency to “condone sexism and male domination” (106), while “[i]n Hinduism, Buddhism, Voudoun, and diverse spiritual traditions women found images of female deities that allowed for a return to a vision of a goddess-centered spirituality” (106).
In addition to these alternative faiths that open up a divine hierarchy to women deities, hooks presents an interpretation of “the liberation of exploited and oppressed groups as essential acts of faith” (107), acts of faith that support feminism. Because this liberation of oppressed women can be interpreted as an act of faith, therefore, “[s]truggles to end patriarchy are divinely ordained” (107). Feminist Christians who embraced this interpretation “began to offer new and creation-centered critiques and interpretations of the Bible, of Christian beliefs” (107), but most Christians remained unconvinced. hooks points out that until everyone understands that a conflict between feminism and Christianity is not necessary, “organized patriarchal religion will always undermine feminist gains” (108).
Whether feminist spiritual practice is therapeutically valuable or not, hooks reminds the reader that any process of “spiritual soul searching” (108) is private, and therefore, the public is unaware of the level of feminist engagement with spiritual questions. hooks identifies a need for improved ways to share this information about feminist spirituality with the public, so that everyone can “sustain commitment to spiritual life even as they continue to challenge and interrogate patriarchal religion” (108). The limitations to reproductive rights and “repressive notions of sexuality” (109) still must be challenged, reflecting “a need for feminist activists to highlight organized religion, to engage in ongoing critique and resistance” (109).
Chapter 19 Summary: “Visionary Feminism”
In the final chapter of the book, hooks provides an overview of her definition of visionary feminism as well as the necessary steps required to move towards visionary feminism. The first step is “to root our imagination in our concrete reality while simultaneously imagining possibilities beyond that reality” (110), a step that began in the earliest days of feminism back in the early 1960s. The movement struggled with the differences in visions held by radical feminists and reformist feminists, whose agendas and ideals diverged at critical points, and “made the movement more vulnerable to cooptation by mainstream capitalist patriarchy” (111).
hooks points out that as reformist feminists “made strides in the existing social order fewer women were interested in working to dismantle that system” (111); hooks emphasizes the need to “create strategies that change the lot of all women” (111), not just the lot of women of privilege who enjoy greater mobility within their class thanks to the overall effects of feminism. These visionary strategies must “address the needs of girls and boys, women and men, across class” (112), and they must be available to society in “accessible language or shared through oral communication” (112), radio shows, television shows, and even in children’s books. Without this “collective door-to-door effort to spread the message of feminism” (113), feminism will not be able to exist “above ground” (113).
Other problems that interfere with the pursuit of visionary feminism include the “notion that there can be many ‘feminisms’” (114) as well as feminist-supported “public policies that are anti-welfare” (114). The vulnerability of reproductive rights for women as well as “[e]xtreme anti-feminist backlash” (115) also challenge the progress of visionary feminism. hooks re-asserts the need for the support of men, because “if men remain sexist our lives would still be diminished” (115) as well as the necessity of doing work on feminism “at home, right where we live, educating ourselves and our loved ones” (116).
With a final reminder to the reader that gender is not the “sole factor” (116) that determines status, and that “[f]eminism as a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression is alive and well” (117), hooks wraps up her handbook to feminism. The concluding sentence restates the title of the book: “Feminism is for everybody” (118).
Chapters 18-19 Analysis
Chapter 18 focuses on the tension between organized religion and spirituality, spheres of influence not often publicly discussed by feminists nor the mass media reporting about feminism. For some women, religion and spirituality are intertwined with feminism, and, in particular, the juncture at which reproductive rights and religion intersect is critical to the politics of women’s liberation. hooks acknowledges that spiritual matters are deeply personal, which explains why they have not been discussed much in public; this acknowledgment reminds readers of hooks’s awareness that for some women, religion is one element of many that requires careful thought as one considers what it means to be a feminist.
As hooks concludes the book in Chapter 19, she summarizes her main points and repeats them once more in order to leave a lasting impression on her reader. Of critical importance is hooks’s interpretation of the role mass media has played in misrepresenting feminism; she repeats strong phrasing to drive home the dangers of listening uncritically to patriarchal mass media, a voice that feels the “need to severely bash feminism” (117). Of similar significance is the capability of all feminists to spread the word themselves, at home and socially, in clear language and with openness to productive discussion.
In this final chapter, hooks summarizes the problems within the feminist movement as a whole, but instead of elaborating on the issues, she emphasizes the positive nature of conflict and dissonance, claiming that after all that, “[w]e are now ready to renew feminist struggle” (116). The optimistic tone invites unification and mass-based efforts, encouraging everyone, male and female to take part in the “movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (117).
Unlock all 41 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By bell hooks
