Bell Hooks Summary

Patriarchy is such a common misconception by the public, it is perceived as a female’s liberation. Females are not the only ones affected by this patriarchal system, it is males as well. I believe it is critical to get to the bottom of why patriarchy is becoming a bigger crisis that needs to be stopped. bell hooks also suggests that both males and females have to acknowledge that the problem is patriarchy and work to end patriarchy. hooks’ starts off her article with the definition of patriarchy, which is a single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation. In other words, patriarchy is a political system that insists that males inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak,
especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and maintain dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence.
bell hooks endures this type of violence first-hand growing up in a patriarchal family. hooks was taught the males were supposed to be the aggressive one and the females were supposed to be passive. bell hooks seemed to be a brave child standing her ground to play a boys only marble board game. Although, her father was opposed to that and took action by beating her and supposedly putting her in her place, while her mother insisted that her father did that for her own good. The parents of bell hooks did not just decide one day that they were going to teach this patriarchal thinking, they were simply taught subconsciously to have patriarchal behaviors and thoughts through religion. This brings me to the question is religion the core to all patriarchy? social institutions can’t be the only thing that has us question our patriarchal thoughts, it is something deeper, because social institutions had to learn it from somewhere. I believe the Bible can be interpreted in many ways. In this case, we have been taught patriarchy through the eyes of men that interpreted the
bible in their own bias way. For example, people perceive Eve the root to all evil for eating the fruit that was forbidden and it was all her fault for ruining our eternity of happiness on earth. What people don’t consider is that we all face temptation and it is very easy to give in. In this case, Eve made an unwise decision that most of us would have done ourselves, which doesn’t make her the face of evil it makes her a human-being.
Psychological patriarchy also took part in bell hooks’s childhood.
hooks basically had to put on a persona to please the father and mother and couldn’t act in the ways hooks really wanted, because those traits did not fit the gender role bell hooks was assigned to. Many people find themselves in predicaments today where they don’t feel accepted, which leads to depression and misconceptions of others. In the article it tells a story of a young three-year-old boy that liked dressing as a Barbie, until the boys playing with his old brother witnessed it and by their disapproving gaze they gave him was enough for him to stop dong his favorite activity. The psychological patriarchy is used to describe the patriarchal thinking common to females and males. Most feminist continue to see men as the problem of patriarchy. Hooks believes that is not the case. Women can be as wedding to patriarchal thinking and action as
men. bell hooks makes it clear that patriarchal ideology brainwashes men to believe their domination of women is beneficial when it is not. Patriarchy demands of men that they become and remain emotional cripples. Since it is a system that denies men full access to their freedom of will, it is difficult for any man of any class to rebel against patriarchy. I think hooks is acknowledging that men are victimized and are not the enemy. Many males desire to be accepted and affirmed in a patriarchal society, and through that most males will conform to patriarchy in one way or another. hooks stresses through psychological patriarchy, everyone is implicated from this occurrence and we are feed from the misconception that men are the enemy.
Patriarchy affects both males and females. Patriarchy as a system has denied males access to full emotion well-being. Young males that are often brutalized and victimized by patriarchal parents and more often than not they become patricidal. This constant cycle seems to be affecting young males negatively overtime. hooks stresses that until we acknowledge the damage patriarchy causes and the suffering it creates, we cannot address male pain. Patriarchy has a demeaned effect portrayed upon females. Females are taught at such a young age how to behave themselves in a feminine manner, not aware that those tendencies are devalued by the patriarchal society. Patriarchy makes females think they need to take on the role to serve, be weak, and just produce. Males and females sustain patriarchy, because we do not challenge both psychological and concrete manifestation in daily life.
Dismantling and changing patriarchal culture is work that male and female must do together is what hooks mentions. It is important to acknowledge how patriarchy affects us all and how it is an ongoing cycle that needs to be stopped. Challenging the status quo in regards to gender roles will make a drastic difference to how we view patriarchy in the future.