Bell Hooks Summary

Patriarchy is such a common misconception by the public, it is perceived as a female’s liberation. Females are not the only ones affected by this patriarchal system, it is males as well. I believe it is critical to get to the bottom of why patriarchy is becoming a bigger crisis that needs to be stopped. bell hooks also suggests that both males and females have to acknowledge that the problem is patriarchy and work to end patriarchy. hooks’ starts off her article with the definition of patriarchy, which is a single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. In other words, patriarchy is a political system that insists that males inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak,
bell hooks endures this type of violence first-hand growing up in a patriarchal family. hooks was taught the males were supposed to be the aggressive one and the females were supposed to be passive. bell hooks seemed to be a brave child standing her ground to play a boys only marble board game. Although, her father was opposed to that and took action by beating her and supposedly putting her in her place, while her mother insisted that her father did that for her own good. The parents of bell hooks did not just decide one day that they were going to teach this patriarchal thinking, they were simply taught subconsciously to have patriarchal behaviors and thoughts through religion. This brings me to the question is religion the core to all patriarchy? social institutions can’t be the only thing that has us question our patriarchal thoughts, it is something deeper, because social institutions had to learn it from somewhere. I believe the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. In this case, we have been taught patriarchy through the eyes of men that interpreted the
hooks basically had to put on a persona to please the father and mother and couldn’t act in the ways hooks really wanted, because those traits did not fit the gender role bell hooks was assigned to. Many people find themselves in predicaments today where they don’t feel accepted, which leads to depression and misconceptions of others. In the article it tells a story of a young three-year-old boy that liked dressing as a Barbie, until the boys playing with his old brother witnessed it and by their disapproving gaze they gave him was enough for him to stop dong his favorite activity. The psychological patriarchy is used to describe the patriarchal thinking common to females and males. Most feminist continue to see men as the problem of patriarchy. Hooks believes that is not the case. Women can be as wedding to patriarchal thinking and action as