I like to read multiple books simultaneously.
So far, my line of inquiry has been identity, as understood through race and class. Today I went back to bell hooks and her book The Will to Change. It has made me think about how patriarchy influences race and class.
I treat each book as a color; when I read multiple simultaneously, they bleed in and overlap with one another. Doing so allows me to keep different ideas and ways of thinking in my mind. I like it because it allows me to think from multiple perspectives.
“hooks writes that a feminist future for men can enable transformation and healing, which encourages men to be whole and aware of their feelings.”
The patriarchal structure in the United States has been created by white men, where they place themselves at the top of the hierarchy of existing and everyone else is beneath. bell hooks writes about the patriarchal masculine mystique men must live within that disconnects men from their feelings. This lack of emotional connection alienates men from themselves, dividing them in two.
hooks writes that a feminist future for men can enable transformation and healing, which encourages men to be whole and aware of their feelings. For that to happen, women and non-male identifying humans must be willing to hear men speak their pain. She says that only when we courageously face male pain without turning away will we model for men the emotional awareness healing requires. She finishes her book by saying that to heal, men must learn to feel again, to learn to break from silence and speak the pain. (This can be found at the end of the final chapter.)
hook’s book elaborated and expanded that there is a spectrum to being a feminist and the relationship feminist women have with men. She mentioned various extremes of feminism, ranging from hating men to loving and enabling men’s patriarchal tendencies. The space I feel she is making in her writing seeks a partnership and alliance between men and women because we both feel emotions, pain, joy, love, and seek connection and understanding with other humans. As a feminist, like hooks, I want to see and create a future where men, women, and all others in between collaborate and support one another and have empathy and sympathy towards the shared emotional spectrum we all experience.
