bell hooks

• Intentionally uses lower-case letters for her name. Best known for her work on intersectionality, criticising many feminists for focusing too much on middle-class white women. Argues that equality must be universal for all disadvantaged.
• • Women of colour – she brought the cultural concerns of women of colour into the mainstream feminist movement.
  • Intersectionality – the mainstream feminist movement had focused mostly on the plight of white, college-educated, middle/upper-class women who had no stake in the concerns of women of colour.
• • bell hooks developed the idea of intersectionality and multiple factors which cause suffering in society e.g. poverty, sexuality, race, religion and gender, which sometimes act together.
  • She shifts the focus to the individual and understanding their circumstances, with women often suffering from multiple forms of discrimination e.g. young gay black women.
• • The key struggle is against patriarchy and women breaking free from a male-dominated culture, which has often led to women hating themselves and believing they are inferior.
  • The key difference she sought to make was a break-away from traditional feminist perspectives and to modernise thinking to embrace the current realities facing women.
  • Feminists today recognise the importance of rethinking how their agenda can adapt to the modern world, though would express concern if gender is not still seen as central.