Passionate Politics and Scholarly Feminisms- Feminism in the Academy and Beyond It
Scholarly and academic feminism are important to the survival and success of the feminist movement, but as bell hooks assert there is also a need for activist, “common-people� feminism, since “feminist knowledge is for everybody� (hooks, 24). hooks correctly identifies some of the ways in which the “institutionalization of women’s studies helped spread the word about feminism� (hooks, 21) and brought a wider acceptance and exposure to feminist ideas and theories, but she is also right in her acknowledgment of the growing detachment between the academic-theoretic and folkish-activist strands of feminism, and the problems that are associated with such a split.
When “women and men outside of the academic domain… (are) ...no longer considered an important audience� and “feminist thinking and theory… (are) …no longer tied to feminist movement� (hooks, 22) all of the feminist past, present and future achievements are in danger.
I believe there academic and scholarly feminisms do have an important role in the evolution and spread of the feminist revolution, but their roles are secondary to the roles of common (street-level or “folkish�) activist that are working everyday to topple the white-sexist-racist patriarchy that influences our lives and assist its victims. Since I was a soldier I will resort to an allegory from my own lived experience; good intelligence (that provide information about enemy’s locations, patterns of thoughts and behavior) is essential for every successful campaign or operation, but without the plain soldier in the field who fights to block the threats the intelligence information does not worth much.
Feminisms have to continue spreading their message everywhere, in and out of the academy. Scholarly feminisms’ theories and ideas may provide the feminist activists with an essential knowledge and understanding of how patriarchy works and how to use their limited resources in the most efficient ways, but they cannot and should not turn their back on the common people who are both the feminist movement past and future. As long as there is violence against women, prejudices and discriminations, as long as there is enormous gap between people of different classes, ethnic groups, gender identities and sexualities, as long as the future of the feminist movement is not secure, the activist feminism would remain the more important, more essential and crucial one.
Academic and scholarly feminisms are important, but activist feminism is even more crucial to the survival and success of the feminist revolution, which envisions a better, more egalitarian and safer world for all its inhabitants, regardless of their ethnic origin, gender, religion, identity or sexuality.
All bell hooks's citations are from the book "Feminsm is for Everybody".