Sexist Women & Hooks Chapter 1

The chapter from Hooks about feminist politics was helpful for me because it shed light on the stance of feminists today. Even as a feminist, it's sometimes hard to get a good grip on exactly what you want and the language you want to use to best convey your ideas. I like the combination of the political stance set forth in this article and the idea of women's rights as human rights in one of the readings from Thursday. In my experience, there's a common misconception that feminism is strongly an anti-male movement. This causes men to shy away from any mention of the word feminism, even though many of these same men agree with the goals of the feminist movement. This also results in women declaring themselves feminists based on their strong hatred of men, not on their desire to promote the rights of women. I love the article about women's rights as human rights because it talks about a simple shift in language and the resulting shift in thinking that comes along with it. Women are human. Humans have basic rights. This discourse allows the connection to be made between women and basic natural rights. It also changes inequality, sexism, oppression and gender violence a human problem rather than a woman problem.

Hooks rights that females can be sexist too and that the acknowledgement of this fact helped to deteriorate the anti-male sentiment present earlier on in the feminist movement. Sexist women play a huge role in combating the feminist movement and defeating the feminist agenda. In class we talked about the importance of the physical side of women; how society demands very specific adherence to a very narrow definition of beauty. Women are a huge part of the "physical" problem. In my own life, I've had more pressure from moms and female coaches than from anyone else in regards to my weight and appearance. Even moms that know they should tell you you are beautiful no matter what tend to make comments when you put on a few pounds. My cross country coach in high school praised us for losing weight and made fun of "fat" girls in front of us. I haven't met many men that focus on my weight. That's not to say that they don't exist, however in my life there are more fat-conscious women than men. Women face so many conflicting messages about the physical that it is often difficult to pick one message to follow. For example, my mom is quick to say that women should feel beautiful no matter what and that they don't have to be stick thin to be happy. However, she will often say things like, "Wow, it's a good thing she lost weight, she really looks a lot better." Why is it that we focus so much on this? One could argue that in a lot of cases it is good to lose weight for someone who is overweight because they're healthier. However, the comments are always, "Wow she looks a lot better," not "Wow, she's much less likely to have joint pain at a young age now."