Jessica Valenti and bell hooks think it is necessary to promote their definition of feminism so that it would end all the stereotypes surrounding the goals and beliefs of feminism. For example, some people say that feminism is anti-male. By giving their definition, the reader can see that it is far from it. Personally, I understood better the word feminism because of the definitions that the authors. Both of their explanations are identical in a way, but they are very different. The definition of feminism by Valenti is straight out of the dictionary. On the other hand, Hooks said her definition in her own words. Another aspect that distinguishes their definitions is that Valenti definition tells only about the “equality of the sexes” whereas Hooks talks more about the purpose of feminism “end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression”, but Valenti tells more about the mind of a feminist or as she says the “belief”. Moreover, the similarities of their explanations of feminism are that they both have the word “movement” meaning it is a group that wants change. Also, it explains that they do not want unjust discrimination based on a person’s sexe.

For the authors, feminism is important because they want to end the division between men and women. They both want equality of sexes. More precisely for Valenti it is important because that would enable to end the pressure many women face about their physical appearance, psychological performance and social behaviors. In other words, she wants all women to feel good about themselves and to have the same rights as men. For Hooks it is important because she wants the world to know that everyone is created equally. It would also end the idea of patriarchy and all other ways of life where one sexe dominates another sexe. Hooks say she wants more advertisements to eliminate sexism. In my opinion, feminism is important because it gives provides fair rights to everyone. For example, women could have the same salary as men for the same amount of work hours. My definition of a feminist is a person who wants to eliminate the inequality of sexes in society. This definition is not a lot different from the idea that I held before reading the essay of Valenti and Hooks because our education system teached me a lot more about equal rights for every human no matter what their background, gender, orientation and sexe. The only aspect of my definition that is different is that before I thought that feminist can only be a woman, but I learned that anybody can be one and that’s the reason why I wrote a “person” and not a “woman”.

What struck me the most in the essay of Jessica Valenti it’s how a girl is the worst thing that you can say to someone. In other words, if you want to emotionally hurt a person feeling you can say anything bad that is related to the word women. As Valenti says “the worst you can call a girl is a girl”. I just realized that to some degree it is true, however, it is very disappointing to hear that women can be an insult even I a western society.

In conclusion, Jessica Valenti did a lot of things in social media to make more awareness about the feminist movement so that younger generations do not grow in an unequal and sexist society. In addition, she wrote many books that explain more in-depth the feminist movement. Furthermore, bell hooks did a lot of talks wrote books to make some awareness about the goals of feminism by giving public talks in universities and writing numerous articles and books. I appreciate both writers for all the hard work that they have done by talking about the subject that many people around the world are against. They are solving a big problem in our world and that’s why they are role models for our current and future generations.

Written by Hassan Waheed

  Feminism was defined by a lot of persons in very different ways. It’s often seen like something negative and can even be perceived as an anti-men movement. Jessica Valentini and Bell Hooks explain that feminism is not something made to suppress men, but rather a movement to support women’s rights and give them the same treatment and opportunities that men have. Feminism is something that should be supported by everybody, because it’s all about making our society a better place for everybody, no matter what gender they are. But, these two authors have some differences in their definitions. The main difference is that Jessica Valentini doesn’t have a precise definition of feminism and Hooks thinks that it’s really a movement that fights for equal rights for all sexes.

  After reading these articles, my perception of feminism changed a little bit. I think that feminism is made to fight for equality and to simply make our world a better and a more fair place. The one thing that changed is that I finally realized that sexism is more present in our society then what I thought. Sexism against women is not just about making less money then men, but also in little things like insults. As said Jessica Valentini, most of the insults are linked with females, making it seem that being a female is a bad thing. Some people will say that it’s just a detail, but I think that these details make all the difference. I realized that feminism is not only fighting for basic women rights, but also for the way everybody perceives women and their role in our society. Another thing that made me think, is how Jessica Valentini thinks that everybody should be a feminist, I think that her opinion on this subject is mostly true, because as she says feminism is all about making a fair world for everybody, so feminism should be supported not only by women, but by everybody.

  I also did some research about these two authors and found out how Jessica Valentini got into the whole idea of feminism and how she helps people around the world to understand it, she’s also very passionate about this subject and is a very active member in the society. Bell Hooks is really a special persona, she had some very difficult tasks in her life, but she always fought for what she thought was right and I find her very special.

Fighting for rights has been somethings humans have started doing centuries ago. Today, feminists are keeping this fight alive, not to acquire new or absurd rights, but just enough to be completely considered as equal to men and remove sexism. Jessica Valenti and Bell Hooks have written about feminism and have given their own opinions on it. Achieving rights by standing up for equality has been the source of motivation for many. Jessica believes that having thoughts such as believing that a person will be paid less for the same position as a woman is enough to demonstrate that there is still some form of inequality remaining in the world and that feminism would help eliminate this thought eventually. In Hook’s case, feminism is losing its power and position in the world. Those who seek equality and to end sexism have been oppressed by society, yet it is not a reason to give up. Society has become dominated by men and it will not change if there is no one to fight back and break free from this system.

Jessica believes that every single action taken or thought processed by each one of us that seeks equality between women and men makes us a feminist. Similarly, Hook believes that feminism is a movement to end all sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression. In both beliefs, anyone could be considered a feminist as long as they seek equality and wish to end sexism. However, Jessica has more individual approach to this movement than Hook, she focuses more on an action that every one of us as individuals would take and would ultimately group to form a force to be reckoned with instead of Hook, who seeks to view this situation as a phenomena that affect us all and we should all make decisions as a group to be more effective. Feminism has been something both of the authors heard repeatedly throughout their lives. They both have released that feminism is not something that is considered good by society. It is something strange, unwanted and useless according to some. They believe that this ideology is wrong and that the unfairness in society is real and needs to be addressed.

 After reading the texts, my view of feminists has changed. I now do believe that everyone that would think of just a scenario in which a woman is being treated unfairly due to any reason and that the person would genuinely think that the act is unfair would be considered a feminist.

 The first few paragraphs of You’re a Hardcore Feminist. I Swear. She mentions that most of the insults are directly linked to a girl. I did not notice that most of the swear word people use are actually terms that are associated with girls and that was a remark very clever from the author as I did not notice this myself. This made me stop and realize that the author had been right and that this fact had more significance than it did on the surface.

 After some research, the writing style that was used in the texts was made clearer. Valenti, a person that had been living in a populated area such as New York and is relevantly young did not fear using swear words. On the contrary, the use of such words helped youngsters understand faster. Hook was a person that had seen the cruelty of racism with her very own eyes. In her text, explaining racism and not being emotionally too driven into it and instead, explaining it in a calm way that relied only on facts was the probably the better approach to explaining her point and promoting feminism in her story.

Briana Panaccione

Blog 1

Jessica Valenti and Bell Hooks share a very similar opinion on feminism. Feminism to them is having gender equality. It is a way to find your self and a way to make us women feel more empowered and realize our worth as human beings. Feminism is a way of learning to respect your self and your values. Both authors defend feminism as not being anti men or all of the other negative and degrading stereotypes people portray on them, rather it should be seen as being a movement for equality and female respect and justice. Jessica Valenti argues more on the fact that us women shouldn’t be constantly judged on what people think is the “right way” women should act. She argues that there shouldn’t be any determined way or idea of how a woman should be because we are all different and should all feel free to be who we are. We should feel ashamed or have to be judged by others for not fitting in the false ideal of how women should be because really, there is none and there shouldn’t be any. Bell hooks in the other hand argues for similar women rights but focusses mainly on ending sexism for women as well as men and to defend feminist of different face and groups as well. She believes we all need to work together to not only end sexism, but to end racism, class elitism etc., in order to achieve equality for the sexes. Feminism over all is important to both authors because it helped them find their place in the world and made them become wiser, stronger and more passionate.

In my opinion, a feminist is someone who is tired of women being degraded and put down all the time. A feminist is someone who realizes and understands that women should have all equal rights of men and vise versa. There should not be a gender that is superior to others and there should not be stereotypes on how any of the sexes are expected to act. We are all equal and we should all feel free to act in any way we feel is most natural.  Feminist are strong minded individuals who are creating a stronger and more powerful image of what a woman is supposed to be seen and treated as; and it is also for women to realize that we deserve better and to fight for our worth. My idea of feminism prior to reading these texts would be the same, although I do feel a stronger strive and better understanding of the need to support feminism.

A part in the text that made me reflect was when Bell Hooks talks about other injustices we need to end in order to have a peaceful world. She mentions having a world without racism, sexism, domination and so much more. This struck me because I realized if it weren’t for all these injustices and stereotypes, then people would be much kinder and genuine, we would all have a greater human nature to be kind and respectful and to value all that is different. It would be amazing to live in a world that wasn’t affected by all these unethical issues.

Learning about the authors definitely enhances the meaning of these texts because it relates to them through personal experiences of injustice; especially with Bell hooks, her experience was not only to defend feminism, but she also experienced racial issues as a black woman fighting for her rights with feminism as well.

Valenti and hooks’ definition of feminism is similar in the sense that both of them support the argument that women in our society should be treated better. For example, Valenti’s definition of feminism is a progressive movement that has the goal to make women’s life better, by presenting to women that they can have self-respect wihout the outdated expectations of the society and by offering different alternatives so they can make better choices for themselfes. Hooks’ definition of feminism also agrees with the argument, by stating: “[…] feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” Both authors’ definition of feminism reinforce the reasoning that there is something fundamentally wrong with how the society treats women based on a very generalized and narrow point of view and this needs to change.

The difference between Valenti and hooks’ definition of feminism is that Valenti seems to promote internal growth, personnal identity and self-respect as an individual, while hooks’ seems to support gender rights and gender equality and seem to promote feminism as a group.

Feminism is important for both authors because they both know that the society we live in is often biased towards women and that feminism is a movement that would change the way we see women, and that this movement needs to be promoted so changes can be made faster so that women can be free from all the expectations and domination.

After reading both texts, I would define feminism as a movement that promotes gender equality and that informs women about their rights and responsibilities as a woman. In my opinion, feminism is the movement that would make both men and women aware that everyone should be equal regardless of their gender. My definition did not change after reading Valenti and hooks’ works, since I agreed with the majority of points of their work.

After reading Valenti’s work, the part where she mentions that another woman posted a homophobic comment on another writer’s article where she was quoted in. I kept thinking about this passage because after reading Valenti’s work that was introduced, I didn’t think that she was wrong in her statement, maybe it was a bit exagerated with the part where she wtote that “[…] younger women who are nervous about feminism because they’re afraid that boys won’t like them […]” Not everyone like or recognize themselves as feminist and it can be due to multiple reasons other than being afraid that they will not be liked once they “come out” as being feminist. I remember (maybe not exactly what she said since it was a long time ago and that my memory is bad, but this was approximately what she said) a teacher I had that said that she would not call herself as a “feminist” because she thinks that this word is so much used today that it seems to have lost its meaning. Feminism is a word that has different meaning depending on the places you go (my teacher few semsters ago told us one day that she went to somewhere in Russia and there, girls thought that being a feminist meant that being lesbian that hated men), therefore I think it is understandable for some people to not feel comfortable about this term, and Valenti’s expression and portrayal of women not wanting to identify as feminist almost seemed moking at those people so I can understand if some readers were offended by what she wrote. But I was still surprised that to person that commented was being vulgar and used words such as “fat”, “dykes” and “mannabees” (I don’t even know what this word means, probably not a good word) to describe other women. I was expecting that this reader would be more mannered and would start a rationnal debate without the use of offensive slang to express her anger. I was expecting that all women would have some sort of… solidarity? But clearly I was wrong about this. Valenti’s statement about homophobic women made me think again about my view on female solidarity.

After my reaserches (both article found from Wikipedia), Jassica Valenti is one of the founders of Feministing. She has recieved many threats after the creation of this blog that allows women to discuss multiple issues that concern women. Bell hooks, her real name is Gloria Jean Watkins, and has published many books and scholarly articles all about gender and race that has the goal to raise awareness on these issues. After better knowing both women, my appreaciation of the two texts did not change since they both pointed out important issues of the society (for example, people do benefit from women’s need to perfecting themselves) with gender and I think what they wrote are true and accurate.

Feminism is a movement that fights for political and social rights for women. Feminists have fought for many big causes such as : The right for women to vote, getting access to education, the right for women to make their own decisions, and etc. Nowadays, feminism is still present, many women are fighting for their own rights around the whole world. Every single individuals have their own definition and thought of feminist. After analyzing, ‘You’re a Hardcore feminist. I swear.’ by Jessica Valenti and ‘Feminism is for everybody’ by Bell Hooks, I understood that both of these authors had a different view of what feminism is. Both of them agreed that feminism is not a sexist movement against men, it fights for the equality of both sexes. However, Valentin claimed that feminism is a huge movement for women, they deserve their places in society with respect. Bell Hooks believes that feminism is a movement to  end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. Both authors pointed out some stereotypes about feminist supporters such as : feminists are anti-men, anti-sexist, ugly, fat. Valentin and Bell Hooks believes that feminism is a big controversial issue because of those stereotypes made toward women. In reality, feminism is more than an empowerment movement for women to get paid equally or the right to vote, it is for women to feel good and respected in their bodies. After reading the two texts, I realized that women fight for feminism causes to have a good place in society and not just to feel themselves above men.

The section that really struck me is the part is when Valentin said ‘Most people think feminism is a bunch of angry women who want to be like men. It stuck me because, as I feminist, I can clearly see that these people do not get the point of this movement. This movement was created for men and women to be both equal in term of politic, economy and social classes. As I feminist, I fight for the equality of both sexes and respect toward women rather than feel above men.

I made some research about the authors and their past life. Jessica Valenti was a victim of online threat throughout her career. In July 2016, she took a break from social medias after receiving rape and death threats aimed at her and also her 5 years old daughter. Throughout her childhood, Bell Hooks experienced racist, it was not easy for her to live in an American society as a black woman. So, in conclusion, I understand why both of these women want spread feminism around the whole world because they’ve been through a lot of injustice.

Everyone seems to have different interpretation of that word. Some use feminism as an insult, others use it to empower not only themselves but also others around them, man or woman. Jessica Valenti and Bell Hooks both point out very quickly the stigma that arises with the use of that word. The stereotypical ideas of feminism are equally as bad with sayings like feminists are all ugly and hairy lesbians. Both authors mention that feminism should not be associated to movements that are consistently negative or radical; the point is not to be anti-man. Hooks even states that this movement should not be confused for a bunch of angry women wanting to be like men; you’ve missed the point if that’s your conclusion of feminism. Jessica Valenti even mentions that feminism is to show you there’s nothing wrong with you as a woman. The empowerment comes from feeling good about yourself and not letting others tell you how to behave and be.

“The worst thing you can call a girl is a girl. The worst thing you can call a guy is a girl. Being a woman is the ultimate insult.” That’s one of my favorite passages from Jessica Valenti’s work because I never realized how much this applies to me and to everyone around me. See, as girls, my best friends and I often call each other insults that only relate to women. The reasoning behind it is simple, we as women took what insults are thrown at us and make them apart of our culture so outsiders simply can’t hurt us with them. But I never realized that certain traits of toxic masculinity can be easily solved if we just stopped treating women like they didn’t deserve respect. This just makes it even more obvious that feminism is not outdated and very much so still relevant to us today. The statement also proves even more that men can also be feminist if they just recognize how much we undermine women so easily. Putting everything I’ve known and read so far, I’d like to define feminism as a movement anyone can partake in that recognizes women as equals to men, moves towards the goal of reaching true quality and fully supports every woman.

To learn more about these two authors, I decided to search them on Google. Just by writing Bell Hooks name, I immediately find an article published about her claiming she paved the way for inter sectional feminism. To see how a colored woman who identifies as “queer-pas-gay” talk about gender politics so passionately truly is empowering. As for Jessica Valenti I found out that she’s a journalist who doesn’t hold back and one of her works Why Have Kids? really has me intrigued, and makes me appreciate her writings about feminism a bit more.

Often times feminism is seen as a negative concept in itself which strives to eliminate all men and everything involving them. When in reality, feminism at its core can be defined in a number of different ways which varies from person to person. For instance, authors Jessica Valenti and Bell Hooks both share similar ideals whilst also adding their own thoughts on the matter. For one, they both agree that feminism is not a movement with the purpose of eliminating all men from our society. If anything, feminism focuses on the beliefs of equality between the sexes. However, in Valenti’s text she writes that she believes that feminism itself does not truly have one definition and that it can vary from person to person. Whereas, Hooks believes feminism has a fixed definition of it which can be described as “…a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression,”. Nonetheless, both authors have made it clear that feminism is still extremely relevant issue today. Valenti puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of feminism as her mentality is that it’s a movement in which empowers women rather than bringing them down. On the other hand, feminism is truly important to Hooks as she views it as something that brings hope that someday we will live in a world of equality and peace. In the end, 

     Even after reading both essays, I still believe that feminism can be defined as a way in thinking in which the sexes are treated as equal. However, reading both essays have also made me realize that feminism is not only about having equal pay or being able to have the same jobs but rather the simple fact of empowering oneself. One moment in particular in the essays I’ve read which made me truly think was found in both of the essays. This being the fact that the label feminist has such a bad reputation to it, to the point where people are too afraid to identify as one. In our society a feminist is often used as a synonym for a woman who ‘s aggressive, or rather “manly”, when in reality a feminist does not have to look a certain way. It also means that not only can women be feminists, but so can men. In a way it is sad that being apart of such a powerful and empowering movement is seen as almost shameful in some people’s eyes. Nobody should have shame or looked down upon for fighting for such a cause.

To begin, feminism is considered such a powerful movement that has changed the world in countless positive ways for women. It has brought attention to the inequality that has been going on between the two sexes for generations. However, every woman has their own perspective and opinion on this movement that is inspirational for some yet controversial for others.

Firstly, Jessica Valenti and bell hooks have very interesting viewpoints concerning feminism. Valenti believes that it is a way of telling women that they do not need to follow the norms and expectations that society inherently expects them to abide to. She portrays the message that every woman is good enough and that every woman should feel good about themselves and have self-respect. According to Valenti, feminism makes life better, and it is a powerful movement that keeps changing with diversity and uniqueness. In addition, she mentions that the feminist movement comes with many stereotypes and negative biases that were created by people with opposing views to feminism. These stereotypes act as proof that feminism is still present in today’s societies across the globe. To continue, bell hooks gave her share of what feminism is. Her perspective is that it is a movement that drives to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression. She conveys the message that feminism breaks the male domination that has been in place for decades. In her opinion, this movement lets women find their true selves which leads them to become fully self-actualized. Once the women has accepted herself, she will have peace and the presence of possibility and everlasting opportunity. She wants everyone to be who they truly are, no matter their gender, race, religion or class. hooks states that all women have their own way of understanding feminism and that creates different types of the movement.

Secondly, it is important to recognize the similarities and differences of both of their perspectives on feminism. The different thoughts of Valenti and hooks demonstrate the diversity of feminism and how it can change depending on each individual. Valenti describes feminism as a movement that revolves around making one feel good and respected. However, hooks’ focus is on male domination and how feminism fights for the abolition of sexism. On the other hand, these two ladies do have many points in common. They both agree that feminism fights for equality between males and females (politically, socially, economically). Also, they both state that feminism results in self-actualization and self-respect. Feminism is important for these two women because they have grown tired of society’s pressure on women which results in the feeling of being inferior. They know that every girl was brought up with the mentality of something being wrong with them and feminism has the power of eliminating those negative thoughts. They find it very important to bring awareness to people about this situation and hopefully, they will get more people to change their behavior concerning this issue.

Thirdly, I see myself as a feminist, however my definition of feminism may alter from what you have previously read. According to me, feminism is a movement whose main goal is to create equality between men and women in every domain. It is a movement that shows men that women have the capacity of doing anything a man can do. Feminism instills courage and hopes to result in both genders being identical. My definition did not change from before reading these two articles to after analyzing them, however it did open my eye to some things that I did not think about before. The section of Valenti’s article that stuck with me most, was the first paragraph where she spoke about the worst names that you can call a man or a woman. The names called out for the women were very hurtful. However, the words for the men were softer and many of them were calling them girls. “The worst thing you can call a girl is a girl.” is the line that struck me and shocked me because of how truthful it is. After doing some research on both writers, I have grown more respect for them knowing that they have done so much for women. They both have written many books to bring awareness to people on the issues surrounding feminism. They have both contributed to help create the foundation concerning this situation and they inspire me to stand for what I believe is right. I consider these two ladies to be an inspiration based on what they stand for.  

bell hooks and Jessica Valenti both argue that feminism currently has a bad reputation and distinct stereotypes that are incredibly tunnel visioned and inaccurate. People recoil when they hear the word and its often a taboo subject in some circles. Both also argue that women are also complicit in rejecting and demonizing the feminist agenda.

Jessica Valenti effectively dissects some of the most popular feminist stereotypes and explains how ridiculous they are to apply to all feminists. Valenti intends to break some of the stigma surrounding the fear of being called a feminist by debunking some common myths, including the one that says “all feminists are ugly”.

bell hooks graciously shares her perspective as a black woman feminist, emphasizing the importance of intersectional experiences. This article serves to remind the privileged to include and care about how other people might suffer more due to double and triple whammy effects of oppression related to gender, race, class etc. I have known about bell hooks for a while and I have always loved and appreciated her work.

I have been a feminist my whole life but I only started calling myself one for ten years as I was ignorant to what it truly meant to be a feminist. The definition in the dictionary is good but I love bell hook’s definition even better.

My favourite part of the articles was in bell hook’s where she talks about how Christianity is enforcing ideas that women should be subordinate to men. Its heartbreaking that some women feel obligated to conform to such ridiculous notions.