#85: What bell hooks Taught Us (Dr. Erin Boyce)

Feminist scholar bell hooks passed away in late 2021, leaving behind a legacy that will outlive her by generations. She taught us what feminism is and why we should not be afraid of it. She explained why media (music, TV, film, etc.) teaches us things about the world without us realizing we have learned anything. She reminded us that rap music is not a reflection of black life in the United States, but a capitalistic product purchased by mostly white, mostly middleclass kids who recognize something in it that they have been promised by their families, churches, schools and culture: domination. And perhaps most importantly, she taught us that our everyday lives are inevitably caught up in systems of power which we cannot escape, and which we either support or resist.Her life was dedicated to understanding how power works. This episode is dedicated to her work. Today my partner (the other Dr. Boyce) and I sit down to talk about what bell hooks means to us, and what she means to the movements we support. We talk about why she doesn't capitalize her name, what love should look like, why domination is such a problem, and how media works to reinforce oppressive systems without us realizing it. Plus we walk through what she meant by the term she coined: "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy." Support the show