Bell Hooks, originally named Gloria Jean Watkins is an author,social activist and feminist from the United States. She was born a black, a race that empowers her to be more special to speak up about Feminism,social justice and class oppression.
Bell hooks is the symbol of the third-wave Feminism that emerged in the 1990s, and she published a book called Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center . What she means of ‘margin’ are those non-white lower class women, as the women’s liberation did not benefit the non-white women. Before bell hook’s theory, feminism has always been the product for white women, particularly with the upper class or educated white women, and the gender equality of the non-white lower class women is always neglected and the voice of the non-white women is always made invisible. Bell hooks, on the other hand, suggested that male participation should be included in gender equality movement. At the same time, she challenged the traditional feminist to consider gender’s relation to class, race and sex and pointed out that a restructure in the power framework is important. Most important of all, feminist movement cannot be separated from the politics, which means we cannot depoliticize feminism.
Bell hooks published the book Reel to Real talking about the mainstream movies is dominating the presentation of black female. The black-slave system is still applicable on movie screen, for example, roles of white women are always superior to the black ones, maybe more rich and powerful. This media representation of black female is degrading the black female on a daily and public basis. The mass cannot reject these images because they are showing on screen , visible every day. The representation of black female is dominated wrongly, and this is an issue everyone should address.
Written by Chan Wan Yu