GER 150 Podcast - Frauism - Ep. 2 Closing the Margin

In Episode 2 of Frowism, the focus is on Bell Hooks and her feminist theory, Margin to Center. Hooks, also known as Gloria Jean Watkins, grew up in a time of racism and sexism in Kentucky. She emphasized the oppression of marginalized groups and the importance of intersectionality in social change. Hooks wrote under a pen name and was a professor at Berea College. Her book, "Feminist Theory from Margin to Center," highlights the power dynamics between those in the center (wealthy white women) and those on the margin (minority women). Hooks argues that feminism should include the experiences of all women and challenge racial hierarchies. She also critiques the competition and lack of solidarity among women. Though written in the 1980s, many of Hooks' ideas still resonate today. She warns that gaining power must lead to meaningful social change, rather than replicating oppressive systems. The episode concludes with a discussion on the importance of allyship and expanding the center. Welcome to Episode 2 of Frowism. Today we will be discussing Gloria Jean Watkins, better known as Bell Hooks, and her feminist theory, Margin to Center. So, Gloria Jean Watkins was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky in 1952, a time heavily ridden with racism and sexism. As an African American woman growing up in rural and racist areas of Kentucky, she formed strong ideas on the oppression of groups of people, the importance of considering intersectionality when it comes to social change and social movement. She began writing under a pen name, Bell Hooks, which was a dedication to her grandmother. Bell Hooks spent much of her time in academia writing and teaching about race, feminism, and class. She also had many important writings and was a distinguished professor at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky until shortly before her death. And in today's episode, we will be discussing her book called Feminist Theory from Margin to Center. So, the Margin to Center theory basically puts people into two separate playing fields in terms of who has power, I guess, in a way. Would you describe that as power or just privilege? Privilege. Privilege. So, people on the margin are absent of choices. So, this would be like minority women. So, for example, like black women. Whereas people in the center do have choices. So, this would be like more wealthier white women. Basically, people that have the choices would have like wealth and power, social membership, and political affiliation. But with her feminist theory, the experiences of all women must be included if the feminist theory hopes to fulfill its revolutionary potential. And the feminist theory must be redefined in order to encompass the lives of all women on the margin. As women on the margin differ, like, so you can be on a different length where, depending on like your social status, or your race, or social economic status. Yeah. So, as for people on the margin, I think that Hook's main idea around race is that feminism we commonly think of is based on only one group of women and is not really informed by any other class or race other than the upper white class. The book sort of starts out with explaining how contemporary feminism does not account for all the non-white and non-privileged women in the margin and was focused primarily on upper class white educated housewives in a sense. There's a quote from the book that says, past feminist refusal to draw attention to and attack racial hierarchies, hierarchies, excuse me, suppress the link between race and class. She argues that modern feminism was constructed by white women, which leads to the things important for everyone else in the margins not being achieved. Yeah. So, along with minority groups, other groups are considered to be within the margin. However, what's interesting about Hook's theory is that she states that the reason that there is a margin is due to the social reproduction of gender inequality by the social patriarchy that we live in every day. So, I think specifically she focused on the competition between women and how that is encouraged, especially like in the media. Women of different races or just women in general? Women in general. There's animosity between women, but specifically I think the competition in between, say, upper class white women to other women is... They have power and other people don't. Yeah. So, it's like we're going to gatekeep and girl boss even though... Not even that. It's just kind of like we'd rather keep our lifestyles as housewives and have all this social change, but we do have to take into account that this book was written in the 1980s, so the things that are being talked about in this may not entirely apply to now. I feel like white women now are sort of shifting towards... Jobs that men normally held in the past, so maybe business owners, CEOs. Yeah. Right. I think now even women do have to have jobs in this type of economy or world. So, if this was written 40 years ago, some women were more likely to be a housewife or earlier than that, too. So, things have changed, but the concept still stays. Yeah. I think it's the idea of gatekeeping power. I know that Hooks talked about the sisterhood that this feminist movement had started with and how that was contradictory because white women were holding often jobs above women of color. That is definitely something that still proceeds into modern times. This idea of white women in positions of power over women of color. With that, Hooks kind of warns the readers and sort of argues that even gaining power, if people from the margin were to gain power, it might not necessarily make any social change. It might just oppress other people instead and put new people in power. So, she sort of warns to not do what men are doing right now while they're sitting in power. She's arguing that we need to completely change the way we think about gaining power and using that power. So, it's like stretching the center. Stretching the center, yeah. And reducing the margin. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else you want to add? I think tying that back to the margin-to-center outlook. Obviously, minorities, women are sitting in the center. Not sitting in the center. Minority women are sitting in the margin, but there are also other groups of people sitting in the margin, such as men in feminist movements. There's obviously a lack of maybe allyship, if that's a correct word, by men. Simply because I think the feminist movement is misunderstood. I'm going to see it as like a I hate men, kill all men movement. However, in the context of this margin-to-center, men's voices are just as important, I guess, in a way. Obviously, a woman's voice is significantly more important when we're talking about women's rights. However, support by other groups is also important. Allyship is important regardless. Yeah. Again, just expanding the center. Yeah. Well, that was Episode 2, Closing the Margin.