Feminism Is For Everybody Analysis

In the beginning of chapter 8, in Bell Hooks’ Feminism is for Everybody, she clarified that white women weren’t the first to rebel against male domination. However, with their Western culture neocolonial thinking, which focuses on conquering territory, privileged-class white women took charge of the feminist movement and declared their ownership in the movement. That being said, they expect working class and lower class white women and all women of color to be their followers. When feminist leaders of United States proclaimed the need for gender equality, they did not bother to determine if there were similar movements that are active in other parts of the world. They assumed that they were the first to seek for gender equality to liberate their sisters especially those in the third world. At the same time, these feminist leaders forced women of color and white radicals to the background to make conservative/liberal white women be the representative of feminism. When Hooks said, “No wonder then that the "power feminism" of the '90s offers wealthy white heterosexual women as the examples of feminist success”, it immediately shows how ironic feminism was. For what I understand, while leaders of feminism seek for gender equality, they did not acknowledge class and racial equality since most of them are keeping women of color and white radicals behind. They also think that they could establish the
They wanted equality for all women in the world yet expect working and lower class white women and all women of color to be their followers. They try to understand the struggle of black/colored women yet deny them once they lead the movement. I believe that Bell Hook’s criticism shows how even in feminist movement there is inequality among women. That gender is not the only problem but also each and everyone’s racial