bell hooks, 69-year-old, author, essayist, poet, advocate, and teacher dies on Wednesday, December 15. She passed away after suffering from an undisclosed illness.
bell hook’s influential ideals and thought-provoking literary gestures provided women a feminist safe haven. hook’s profound courage to put on paper what everyone is thinking is unprecedented. Advocating for the rights of women over a span of four decades, the scholar leaves behind a fiery trail.
In order to tackle the complicated array of American misogyny, hooks broke down dynamic paradigms of working-class and Black women. Focusing on gender and race, hooks managed to captivate a stern female audience. These women choose bell’s idealism as a means to American survival. bell’s goal was to pinpoint the overlooking of Black women and their experiences in an unfair America.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, bell geared her frustrations with white American society in terms of classism and the inequality of women to greater heights. According to NBC News, hooks released her first work, “And There We Wept” in 1978. However, in 1981, the trailblazer released her first book, Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism.
Because hook’s complex criticism towards racism is so blunt, she broke the mold for women who exist among these classes.
Surely, she made her mark representing Black women whose experiences are overshadowed by the dominant white, middle-class perspective.
Her exploration of race, gender, and class rewarded her with a spot at every library.
A Quick Look at bell hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins, born on September 25, 1952, falls under the sun sign, Libra. She is from Berea, a town in Kentucky.
According to Britannica, Gloria, better known as bell hooks, began her literary journey assuming her pseudonym from her great-grandmother. Of course, the name is symbolic for female legacies. She always insisted that her name was spelled in all lower case letters, to be sure that her name does not obstruct the audiences’ view of the message.
bell hooks’ legacy will continue to inspire a plethora of readers and followers all over the world.
