Silence, Feminism & Racism Essay Example for Free

Silence, Feminism Racism Essay The essays done by Hooks simply described the voice as an relevant tool in achieving freedom from oppression, not only for the perspective of one woman, but using the voice in order to liberate other women experiencing cruelty. This is an example of one important role of women in the society. Silence on the contrary keeps women from being in the state of oppression, because they are hindered from using their voice to speak of their situation. Women in silence never learned how to speak for themselves, and the only solution is to free them from silence. For other women, even though they are subjected to domination, they still use their voice to resist the impact of those who oppress them. Hooks mentioned that feminism is transformative. The writings of today are racist and at the same time sexist as dictated by the culture. But then the way a student reads a composition, for example a novel, the style of literary criticism may be varied from the usual cultural dictatorship that makes the women oppressed in those readings. I agree, feminism is a possible tool for critical and analytical examination of writings, and when the feministic view is inserted in the classrooms, this may transform the customary outlook of women. But as for me, the feministic view cannot be totally pushed into the minds of people but could be just used as a guide in making literary criticisms, but not an overall guiding principle in much or almost all of the things. Some of the women chose not to be identified in the feminist movement because of the fear or responsibility. Attached to being a feminist is the confrontation and many critical encounters from the opposition that would punish the ego and esteem of women. Of course, much of the views of a feminist will be opposed by the status quo of men stronger than women, which entails public critique to their feministic ideals. Hooks was happy learning many things from her teachers who happened to be black also in her younger days, until she transferred to another institution of all-white teachers in the 1960s because of school integration. Here she was always confronted because of her color. It made her think that the teachers are not willing to enrich their intellect but to make them consider education as just a form of obedience to them. Also, there was not even any subject or discussion incorporating the life of the blacks. This is one of the factors that made her decide to continue writing for their culture and for womanhood. She had made it a channel for arousing her imagination of conceptualizing teaching as a way to free people from captivity of the mind, especially the women at that time.