Jessica Valenti and Bell Hooks both agree that feminism is not hating men and being anti-male. They also agree that it is a movement that is spread and heard about around the world to which there has been many stereotypes sticked to it, one being that feminists are anti-male and or a lesbian. Both of them concentrate on girls being feminists and not males, yet both sexes can be feminists. They are both different as they are similar, Valenti gives the image that the individuals who are feminists seek social, political and economic equality between the sexes, whereas Hooks shows feminism a movement that will end sexist ideas, (such as females cannot play sports), sexist exploitation (taking advantage of women because they are inferior, which comes back to sexism) and oppression (treating women cruelly and controlling them, for example domesticating them and then punishing them for not having prepared a delicious dinner).
Feminism is important to them because they would like to have equality and for feminism to become a part of our daily lives, as in treating one another appropriately with respect, to not harm either men or women and have equal opportunities as well as equal pay in the same work. For me a feminist is any individual who believes that both sexes should have equal pay in the workforce, rights and freedom, and should not be treated unjustly, exploited sexually and oppressed. The definition I held before did not include the part of “being exploited sexually.” In Jessica Valenti’s article many things stuck by me; one being that feminists are stereotyped and one of the stereotypes is that feminists are ugly. I had heard that feminists are lesbians but never heard of feminists being ugly. Another thing that shocked me was that magazines, newspapers kept on talking about how “feminism is dead”. This clearly shows that it is clearly not ended, the fact that it is still a common theme and discussion topic proves that it is still very much present in our day to day life.
I did some research on Bell Hooks and Jessica Valenti and I must say that I agree more with what Valenti has to say about feminism, she describes feminism the way I believe it to be more than Hooks. Finally I love how Valenti described the feminism waves in an interview, she said that every generation could not be separated into waves rather every individual has their own way of becoming a feminist and operating it, taking initiative. I appreciated Valenti’s article much more after understanding her point of view, which is similar to mine.
-Pia Babi
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