Revolutionary Feminism
Before the beginning of this course, I thought I knew a fair amount about feminism. I took a high school semester of Women in Society, and learned about women’s roles in different cultures throughout history, and the particular women who struggled to change society’s perception of females. We learned about what women have achieved in terms of equality, what we should thank them for, and what particular struggles we still have to face. But through all of this, I do not remember ever learning the ideas of revolutionary feminism.
Bell Hooks defines the philosophy of revolutionary feminists as “before women could change patriarchy we had to change ourselves; we had to raise our consciousness” (Feminism is for Everybody, pg. 7). Hooks continues to describe revolutionary feminism as eliminating all prejudices and inequalities between people of different genders, races, and classes from the inside out. Revolutionary feminism focuses on changing your own thoughts and actions to dispose of the patriarchy that oppresses not only women, but everyone.
This idea was completely new to me, and I thought it was impressive in both its reach for total equality and strategy of focusing on one’s self instead of the society or individuals they perceive as wrong. I see this idea as a huge and realistic step in terms of at least improving equality and people’s quality of life. This is because although many people believe in gender, racial and class equality, a lot of them do not know how to face it. To oppose these issues on a large scale takes a lot of effort, time and will power and all without the promise of results. And to be constantly aware of all the injustices of the world and to feel that you have no power can be an equally heavy and difficult feeling. For these reasons, I believe revolutionary feminism is a realistic and healthy goal because it allows people to change their own lives and the lives of the people directly around them. To focus on yourself and to change your own habits and ideas is a much more attainable and gratifying goal because you are the only one who gets to decide the path of your life, and you can see your results first hand in the relationships you create with other people. I also believe if this idea is held on to, it can spread throughout whole communities simply by word of mouth and witnessing others success. This idea changed how I perceived feminism as well as many other injustices in our country and the world, and I am looking forward to learning more about it in our class.