Ain’t I a Woman by bell hooks [Book Summary – Review]


This book was named after a speech in 1851 by Sojourner Truth who was an advocate for the rights of black women. Even if it was named with an old speech and announced in 1981, the operation of bell hooks is more connected today than ever before.

It was investigated how a compound of discrimination in terms of race and gender all over history made black women fall inside depths of societal stratification array by Hooks. Grasping the way black women are crushed so much, theories have been introduced about how pressure can be overcome.

No matter whether white or black; male or female, it was presented to this issue. Great news? Everyone has a role to perform in the remedy. Although you are not common with the problems circling ethnicity and gender, even if you are seeing for an entrance, the hooks are excellent points, to begin with, a comprehensive look at the problems faced by women of color.


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Chapter 1 – It was sexism that increased the pain of black girls with enslavement.


It is known by everyone that two individuals are not equal. We are complex and multidimensional people with different characters. Unfortunately, this does not indicate that gender patterns and judgments are still not available; the stereotypes that were reflected on women, proceed all over history.

White males from the USA – who saw every girl as a potential for sexual relations, in the 19th hundred years, it was begun to be considered as naive, gullible, and virgin beings. However, for black women, this stereotype was not applied, what has thought for them was confused. This behavior can be determined as the appearance date of the white colonists from the EU. During the times societal and diplomatic orders in America were built, the foundations of discrimination in terms of race and gender were laid by them.

By the colonists, enslaved Africans were labeled as “sexual infidels”. While black-skinned girls were seen as sexually unscrupulous seducers, white girls were recognized as pristine. For white males, this groundless bias confirmed the violation of black-skinned girls.

Although black-skinned males were exposed to discrimination and abuse, the supplementary sexual abuse of black females got their experience much more frustrating and inhuman. Further to being pushed to operate in the area adjacent males, girls were adopted like home slaves, novel slave breeding tools, and sexual assault objects.



This menace of sexual abuse was utilized to frighten black enslaved girls like Linda Brent, who was a slave, remembers. In the autobiography she has written, she explains the way her white-skinned chief tortured her during her young ages with rape threats and was insulted. By him, it was told to Linda that he had ownership and should be prone to “everything”. As a slave woman named Ann found, women who withstood these sexual developments from chiefs and supervisors were punished.

She is remembered Ann that a male was given money to horsewhip her, and the way he offered her calico clothes and jewelry in exchange for her obedience to sex. Instead, she threw a glass to him. As a result, she was condemned to jail and whipped every day. She was lucky that the man did not die from his attack or was tried and possibly punished to death. Unfortunately, as will be learned in the next section, stereotypes about this hard treatment and sexuality of black girls have not been removed with slavery.


Chapter 2 – After the abolition, the fight continues by black women and was regularly degraded in society.


At the time enslavement was eventually lifted, you would examine black women’s lives would be greatly improved. However, this was not the situation. Black women discovered that they did not have the chance to enhance the societal stratification or struggle with their persecution. Their conditions as enslaved might have been shifted, however, the faith that black girls are sexually confused and immoral proceeded to spread Rayford Logan who is the American spirit, as a black activist and historian found in his study.

Racist cartoons were studied by Logan in the magazine of Atlantic in the 1890s. An article linked black women’s “chastity” to ignoring sexual innocence. What evidence did the writer of the article ignore this sexual purity? Liberty of white men on black girls. This was not only authors of Atlantic Atlantic who shared the opinion that black girls appealed to white-skinned men to sexually assault. This was an opinion shared by the white community entirely, affecting the way black girls behaved. For instance, this is apparent in a further statement in the perspective of a teenage black girl emitted during 1912.

That girl was chosen as a chef for a white-skinned house, just to be calculated by her spouse. The black girl’s spouse headed to face the white-skinned spouse, however, when the white-skinned requested the police, he was jailed and punished. The woman objected to her husband’s accusation, describing that the girl had been assaulted. Nevertheless, by the judge, it was told that the law court was going to never accept the word of a black woman and a white man.



And harming black women was not just a cliché of sexual confusion. At the same time, the black girl had mythology as a matriarchal object, disseminated and strengthened by the white community. Because of their weaker societal stratification, black girls labored with great effort in low-paid serving occupations to feed their families. They were masculine anthropologists that marked the role of black women in labor and household areas, marking men as the masters of their kindergartens and homes.

By the writer, it was argued that this matriarchal tag is utilized by racialist academics to influence the brains of black-skinned girls. Finally, black women, it is believed to own societal and diplomatic power – financial safety, generative rights, and diplomatic influence. In truth, those girls had none of these. While accepting their roles as mainstream women, they are accepted by black women by bowing to the patriarchal structure of white-skinned and demanding economic, sexist, and racist pressures.

Nevertheless, as said by the writer, “There was no matriarchy in the USA.”

In the following section, it will be learned the way these masculine opinions entered the black society, generating pressure between black-skinned males and females, and will lead to fatal results by you.


Chapter 3 – In the masculine societal array, severity, and hate among black-skinned males and females are maintained.


There is a huge to be answered by American colonists. The concept of ​​patriarchal society was put forward and the harm is still sensed currently. In patriarchy, men are said to play the figure of breadman and household chief – this is a concept that black-skinned males and females are as accepted as white-skinned males and females.

The major stress among black males and females has been the definition of gender roles in this way. By the writer, there are records of well-known black figures that advocate different gender roles – dating back to 1852. Look at Martin Delaney, a black-skinned jingoist leader. He added that although black men can enter jobs and women can become teachers, women should be interested in raising themselves.

Tensions have been increased due to the racism of white employers. From the beginning of the 19th hundred years to the middle of the twentieth century, by whites, the employment of males was denied. This issue required black girls to work in-home services to assist families.

With a masculine, white-superior construction, the winners were white men. For this reason, black women further sought out black-skinned males to make them out from land duties. They were going to stress males to move up. Such an edition came from Gail Stokes who was a black author.



In the 1968 article on black intercourses, humiliation was expressed by Stokes for black-skinned males who could not adopt the bread-winning role. By she, it was despised to come to her house to observe his partner “seem stunned”. Later, the servant, whom the white husbands will provide for their spouses, briefly states to the nanny and the cooks.

It is not surprising that it was felt powerless by black men. However, while trying to get their power back, black men humiliated and checked black women. Since racial hierarchy black men in patriarchy have long denied their right to station and strength, most have been subjected to low monetary rewards. Although black men could not discover themselves with occupation, they were able to claim their manliness with severity subject to females.

Furthermore, the traditional white-skinned men’s sexual assault of black-skinned girls was accepted by black men. The best example of this is Malcolm X. In his biography, he is depicted as exploiting black women while working as a ponce. During that time, he proved this, pretending that this was a menace to manliness and should be ruled.


Chapter 4 – In the women’s action of the US, if racism is not kept, it is not able to be fought against patriarchy.


According to every dictionary description, the term “woman” explains all-female people. However, the meaning of ‘women’ of the Rights of Women Movement did not cover all women as you are going to acquire.

At the beginning of the action, black women, whom they saw as immoral and confused by white women, were feared to threaten their social posture. This was a problem marked by Josephine Ruffin who was the master of the black-skinned New Age group. During the 1895 talk, by Ruffin, it was criticized by the white women’s club for rejecting to accept black women because of “black woman depravity”. This expulsion turned out to be the fundamental of feminism, and the white-skinned women’s action united to maintain this discriminatory mind.

Let’s consider the white women from the government. During the initial 90s, discrimination in work areas, toilets, and showers was advocated by them. By the Action for Rights to Women, it was even utilized discriminatory thought to back up its campaigns to get rights for voting. 1903 Women Suffrage Congress for the US women around New Orleans was the reason for a southern judge advocated defending the rights of white-skinned females was they would “provide women with direct and strong white domination”.

And it wasn’t just her. As a consequence of this racist discourse, the American suffrage action of the 1920s depended individually on the concerns of white-skinned females. Black-skinned females would be deleted and still deleted from the women’s story, suggesting that white women are reluctant to leave their white primitive grounds.



Any development would be performed to divide the white-skinned masculine societal structure, women – no matter their skin colors are – should embrace it.

The struggle to earn the exact rights and authority of white-skinned men by the women’s liberation action that emerged in the late 1960s. However, due to the white men choose themselves with whom they will part this authority, eventually, they hold the power. This suggests that there is a big rivalry among black-skinned and white-skinned women to be a “selected” society of women.

As seen by the writer, white patriarchy was pitted against the “ethical” white-skinned females contrary to the “depraved” black-skinned females to assure that both groups adhere to white-skinned males in the US authority construction. It should be understood by American feminists that the ground that they stand is racist by nature. Rather than have an achieved women’s revolution, white-skinned feminists need to break this ground and try to eliminate myths, cliché, or division forces among women.


Chapter 5 – By black women, they had to agree on their roles with the movement for the rights of females because of racism in the community.


Black-skinned females have been forever trapped between a stone and a tough area. They were obligated to fight the war on a lot of fields. Never mind the type of war they have selected to struggle, black women had to agree. It occurred in the movement for the rights of females during the 19th and 20th hundred years.

Women’s right to vote is celebrated as a great victory by us, however, keep in mind that black-skinned females could not take advantage of it, as white women do.

The hope was found at first. By Anna Cooper, who was a black-skinned female’s advocate for rights in the 19th hundred years, it was thought that women’s voting could have reached universities and chances to live without marriage. However, even with the right to vote for women in the 1920s, a small transformation in the societal situation was seen by black women. Around the southern regions, black females who wanted to cast their hard-won votes were shifted as non-electors and impeded because of white voting administrators.

In case, women’s right to vote appeared in black pressure because white women voted hard to promote the discriminatory, imperialist, masculine diplomatics from their partners, fathers, and siblings. Moreover, black females possessed larger wars to struggle with, and the women’s rights effort is left behind to protest the increase in racial discrimination.



The return of this separation menaced black people to deprive them of their rights during reconstruction following the War of Civil. Due to the enhancement of laws from Jim Crow, they encountered extraction from unions, and any governmental jobs, like occupations in postal service.

In other words, while the Change for even rights was advocated by white women in 1933, by black female activists, it was fought against lynching gangs and the reasons for the indigence of black-skinned people.

Between 1940 and 1960, by black-skinned females who at first worked for equality among genders, it was accepted to work for racial balance. In the following section, when the Movement of Civil Rights appears, you are going to discover how black female managers hold back chairs for men in management situations.


Chapter 6 – By black women, it also needed to be agreed on their roles in the rights of black-skinned people.


Black women were wrong if it was thought that they could return to defending women’s rights when black came to redemption by them. No matter the extent of black freedom truly reached, by black women, it still could not be enjoyed the freedom they expected. What was oppressive, imperialist, discriminatory in terms of race and gender is the American community.

Even on the road to black freedom, black women took the back place of black men. By the male masters of the Movement for Civil Rights – Roy Wilkins, A. P. Randolph, and M. L. King Jr – black females like F. L. Hamer, Daisy Bates, and Rosa Parks were left in the shadow.

Although by black-skinned man masters, the discriminatory black-skinned kindergarten myth was not calmly accepted, they adopted masculine gender tasks proved by white-skinned males and wanted black females to be quiet and less important.

Obedient women were not only the masters of the action that maintained their idea. In the 1950s, by black women, those gender tasks were socialized to adopt via mass media like magazines like the Journal of Womens’ House and McCall’s. Because of these publications, outfits, makeup, and feminine standards were marketed to black-skinned females who started to get to be in the middle stratification.

This vaccination of black females via printing and television operated so well after many years, femininity, which could be observed even today, built these opinions. In the 60s and 70s, by a lot of black-skinned females, it was thought that black freedom should be governed by “powerful” black-skinned masculinity. The idea was obvious in Reid’s book All of Us Black Females that published during the year 72.



The book shares the view by black female interviewers that black males must play a higher role throughout the action for black-skinned rights. “In my opinion, women must stay behind men,” said one of the participants. It was thought by that exact female that black-skinned males need to be the masters in black salvation because “the figure of races is represented by men”.

As it can be seen by us, the essence of each move of equality was decayed. The move of black liberation was naturally discriminatory in terms of gender and the action for women was discriminatory in terms of race. Therefore, what are we able to do about that? In the next section, a novel and radical vision are proposed.


Chapter 7 – By the action of women, the dominance of gender, ethnicity, and stratification in the culture of Western people must be disrupted.


It needs to encourage you to develop when you have been assaulted, insulted, and abused for hundreds of years. However, it was the moment to admit that the action for women should make improvements.

To the writer, feminism is bound with the white-skinned capitalist-masculine structure. True feminism’s definition is liberation to the whole – no matter male or female – with whole models of authority, stress, and gendered tasks, according to her. The sole means to achieve this is said to be restructuring the US community, by her.

The current system increases men’s aggressiveness. The convention of severity against women is not going to be shifted by building more shelters for women who have faced household abuse or by training females in the arts of defense to save themselves from sexual assaults. Rather, the community must prevent supporting brutality and severity as a manly standard. For defending the bad situations of every pressurized human being, the egoistic, imperialist, sexist, and discriminatory pressure that constitutes the basis of the US life should be broke by us.

A way to move forward is to ensure that the action for women prevents working in discriminatory and stratified boundaries. By the individuals from female rights institutions, it has not been yet attempted to approach the exemption that the action for women is based on. Unless accepting that some females face sexist pressure more than others, a radical reform cannot happen.



In the white-skinned masculine capitalist structure, it is in charge of the entire way of thinking of discriminatory pressure in terms of gender and race. It was encouraged by white-skinned females and black-skinned males to investigate power within themselves within the present masculine rules instead of joining ethnicities and sexes to reach joint transformation and shake white-skinned man command. This suggested that black women, it was struggling to gain a sound in both movements for female rights and black freedom.

By the writer, it is advocated a mark of feminism about restoring an entirely novel community. It would eliminate the “way of thinking for sovereignty” in the convention of the Western and give priority to its people’s self-development according to financial and worldly achievements. As it is said by hooks, “for me, feminism … has been a responsibility to reduce the way of thinking that penetrates Western culture at different stages – gender, ethnicity and stratification, a few names.” to demolish each wall and build a completely new foundation to build upon.

The plan for women has long been dependent on a malfunctioned strength composition. The time of destroying every wall and building a novel foundation came.


Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks Book Review


Black females are under pressure for hundreds of years, and the pressure is present even in women and action for black-skinned rights that exclude them. Overthrowing all present strength constructs- ethnicity, stratification, and gender – is the single way to achieve correct equality, so any pressure or hegemony is reduced. This accusation was led, especially by black women, as they would earn the most as leaders in the action for women.



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Savaş Ateş

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