UCLA

Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies

Title
Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9ss1t6vj

Journal
Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 14(3)

ISSN
0041-5715

Author
Jackson, Sandra

Publication Date
1985

Peer reviewed

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University of California
 BOOK REVIEWS

Bell Hooks, Feminist Theol-y: From Margin to Center . South

End Press: Boston, 1984. 174 pages.

Bell Hooks' new book speaks directly to major

contradictions within the feminist movement in the United
States: Eurocentrism, elitism, opportunism, romaniticism of
sisterhood, and a false consciousness which targets men as the
enemy and deflects attention from an economic system based
upon exploitation, racism and sexual discrimination. From
Margin to Center, a leading work in an emergent body-of
literature written by Black feminists, clearly delineates the
nexus of race, class and sexual oppression upon the lives of
Black women.

Hooks insists that we as Black women speak out, clearly

articulating our priorities as women of color. Through her
own example, we are urged to write our own theoretical
framework which defines the broad parameters of our struggle
and outlines strategies for change . We must give voice to our
yearnings and in so doing, we must dare to speak in our own
behalf -- unabashed and unbowed. For too long, "In this
country Black women traditionally have had compassion for
everybody except ourselves ... We have too often been expected
to be all things to fll people, speaking everyone else's
viewpoint but our own."

Things have changed dramatically. Black women o.1re no

longer silent. We have entered the arena of debate and we
have done our homework. As Black women we have begun tc
express compassion for ourselves . We have begun to assess out
own particular condition as women and as members of ar
oppressed ethnic group. We have even dared to becomE
advocates of feminism that 1s within an Afrocentri<
context. We have done this in spite of resistance an<
incisive criticism from Black women and Black men who deer
feminism an inappropriate topic for us. Those of us who have
a vision of a future free of exploitation on the basis o·
race, sex and class , remain undaunted. In increasing numbers
our novels, poems and expository works attest to ou
understanding that sexism is indeed a barrier which we mus
organize to eradicate .

Bell Hooks' earlier work, Ain't I a Woman: Black Wome

and Feminism (1981); Gloria I . Joseph and Jill Lewis', Commo
Differences (1981); and Angela Y. Davis', Women, Rac-;;-a:n
Class (1983), collectively provide a rationale for Blac
;o;nen' s necessRry participation in the feminist movement o
our own terms . Together, these works hav~ explored ou
multifaceted history and its various permutations: the impac

198

-
of racism on Black women during slavery, the devaluation of
Black womanhood, racism within the contemporary feminist
movement, the relationship between mothers and daughters,
sexual atitudes and sexuality, housework, birth control and
struggle.

Hooks, Davis and Joseph see Black women 's feminist

concerns as undeniable and they speak in direct contrast to
Black and African women (and men) who preoccupied by reactions
to racism, cast aspersions and espouse the belief that ...

Black American and African women should beware of

the term 'feminism ' which is suspect, negative and
usually associated with middle-class white American
women who (either out of luxury or drudgery) have
developed the fashionable feminist liberation idea
to either defend their relatively privileged posi-
tion in corporate white America, or to find a footing
for the white women in the status-quo. These women
have no idea what it means to be a Black woman in
America, and Africa women should therefore view
them as phonies who have abandoned their marriages
and homes to become lesbia2s, divorcees etc., to
bring shame to womanhood . "

None of the writers previously alluded to -- Hooks, Davis

or Joseph -- denies the existence of racism and elitism within
the contemporary feminist movement. Instead, they express
repugnance for its tenacious grip on the movement and its
alienation of women of color. Furthermore, these authors do
however, contradict the notion that the feminist movement
belongs to white women (middle-class white women at that), and
challenge the 1.dea that Black women do not have legitimate
concerns related to gender and exploitation. Each further
refutes the reductionist analysis that combatting racism
alone, will mean that Black women will then ipso facto become
liberated. Instead, our struggle is defined as one against
the combined forces of racial, sexual , and class oppression.

Here, Hooks' metaphor, from margin to center, becomes

quite a propos . Instead of the plight of women of color being
pushed to the periphery, their priorities must be brought to
the center . Hooks contends that if feminists are to succeed
in creating a viable mass movement against sexual oppression ,
it must account for the complexity and diversity of female
experience and cease catering to the needs of a privileged
few. This means enlarging the scope of analysis from a narrow
focus on the concerns of a minority of white middle- class
women to one that addresses the conditions of Native American,
Black Asian, Latino, and poor women in general. A viable
feminist framework must acknowledge that "women are divided by
sexist attitudes, racism, class privilege , and a host of other

199
I prejudices" which have precluded their coming together and
organizing effectively .
3
Only after the recognition of common
differences ~s acknowledged and the diversity of women's
condition is made central to the feminist framework, can the
feminist movement move forward.

A look at the issues Hooks addresses in the twelve

chapters of her book reveals the breadth of her analysis as
she identifies pivotal concerns. She be9ins her discussion
with a critique of the contemporary feminist movement that
asserts that "Feminism in the u.s. has never emerged from the
women who are the most victimized by sexist oppression; women
who arE' daily beaten down, mentally, physically and
spiritually -- women who are powerless to change thei~
condition in life: all non-white women and poor women."
Furthermore, she comments that "It was a mark of race and
class privilege, as well as the expression of treedom from
many constraints of sexism placed upon working class women,
that middle-class white women were able to make their
interests the primary focus of the feminist movement and
employ a rhetoric of commo~lity that made their condition
synonymous with oppression ." Women who were not opposed to
patriarchy, capitalism, classism or racism, labeled themselves
feminists; yet these women claimed sisterhood with the very
women they sought to silence and exclude from the struggle.
This chauvinism has lead to a backlash where either
e xplicitly or implicitly through their behavior -- Black women
and other women of color have refused to join them. Hence,
the movement's stagnation and isolation form the very forces
who could have galvanized feminism into a legitimate masf
based organization . To transform feminism and raise it fron
this quagmire, Hooks suggests that feminism be define(
clearly, as a movement to end sexist oppression as well a1
other forms of oppression and domination -- not as a movemen1
promotinq a life-style choice or as gaining equality with me1
within an oppressive and exploitative system.

Th e remainder of Hooks ' book is devoted to discussing ,

variety of issues including the following: the mystifictio.
of sisterhood and its ripoff; the need lo see men as comrade
in the struggle and not as the ' enemy '; rethinking the natur
of work; the centrality of educating women; the need to en
violence and all forms of domination; c hanging perspectives o
power; ending female sexual oppression, transformin
parenting; and the need to reorganize the feminist movement s
that it w~ll move beyond cosmetic reforms which only serve t
promote the needs of a small minority of women who have ha
hegemonic control over feminist discourse. Unlil now.

Hooks has troubled the waters; her book is a theoretic<

break through . For she discusses issues which have hi thert
been given lip-serivce only: women are not a monolithj

200
group; there is diversity , there is conflict, and there are
differences in spite of the commonality of gender. Hooks '
critical assessment of the limitations within the contemporary
feminist movement is lucid and thoroughgoing . She not only
identifies short-comings, but she also provides means to
overcome them . What I found most useful about her work, From
Margin to Center , is that she pulls together the various
strands and argues effectively for an analysis which
acknowledges the interdependence of race, sex and class and
the necessity of fighting them through a combined and
multi-pronged strategy . Hooks s killfully sidesteps the
Marxist orthodxy of myoptically focusing on class to the
exclusion of all else ; she transcends the nationalist thinking
of defining race as the sole barrier ; and she refuses to be
seduced by the lure of sisterhood with women who have co-
opted feminism and appropriated it as a vehicle for their own
self-serving needs.

The circle must be widened and the base must be expanded .

In her conclusion, Roods enjoins women and men to support
feminism and to restore its revolutionary life force by
"rethinking and reshaping its direction so that the
experiences of people on the margin who suffer sexist
oppression and other forms of group oppression are understood,
addressed and incor~rated into the making of theory and the
planning of action." I highly recommend this book because of
its depth and clarity. As a principled analyst, Hooks'
approach is to perform the criticism necessary to strengthen
feminism without trashing it because of its blatant
shortcomings which can be remediated through concerted action .
Hooks encourages the colloquy regarding r ace , class and sex to
continue. The debate continues, but the ground rules have
been changed. Black women and other women of color are
addressed and identified as principal characters in the
struggle against sexism; they are brought front stage , center,
no longer relegated to the wings. A.n d, men too, are not
allowed to abdicate their obligation to struggle with women in
bringing about an end to exploitation based upon race, class
and sex .

Sandra Jackson
Ph.D . Candidate
School of Education
Univ . of Calif . , Berkeley

201
 NOTES
1
l.udrey Lourde . Sister Outsider . The Crossing Press:
New York, 1984, p . 62 .
2
African Woman magazine . January/February, 1982 , p . 17.
3
aell Hooks. From Margin to Center : Feminist Theory .
South End Press : Boston, 1984, p . 44.
4
Hooks, p. 1.
5
Hooks, p . 6.
6
Hooks, p. 161.

Sharon Stichter , Migrant Labour in Kenya: Capitalism and

African Response 1895- 1975 . Essex, UK: Longman, 1982.

Sharon Stichter's book describes the effect of thE

capitalist world market on local Kenyan economies . It is <
model of clear writing and an important contribution on thi1
topic, with one central limitation that I will return to lateJ
in this review .

The book is arranged chronoloqically, moving from tho

militarily-based economic activity of the nineteenth centur:
to a conclusion where she speculates on the possibilities fo
future working class action in Kenya. The areas covere
include the development of a migrant labor economy before an
after World War One, the increasing presence of wage labor
the conflict of estate and peasant sectors in the 1920s, th
depression of the 1930s, and the background t o the Mau Ma
rebellion o f the 1950s.

She states that in the nineteenth century the interna

self- sufficiency of the lineage societies was a barrier t
capitalist penetration , as there was no need to earn wage!
Local eldPrs and leaders began to act as collaborators j
providing wage labor for European projects, in part becau1
the monetary return wds greater for the suppliers of lab<
than for the laborers themselves . Eventually therefore ,
peripheral capitalist economy emerged, built on part-tir
migrant and squatter labour ." (p . 19)

The author includes specific descriptions of vario·

African societies, showing for example why Kikuyu , Kamba, Lu
and other societies reacted differently to European deman
for labor . The thr ee main forces that impelled Africans
work for wages were land alie nation , taxa tion , a
administrative coercion . Thus groups such as the Kikuy

202