Blog #17

There seemed to be a lot of noteworthy ideas in bell hooks piece “The Significance of Femininity Movement,” however there was one particular idea that stood out a lot to me. Although, I am aware of the feminist movement I never really considered the effect it had on the family or vice versa. In this piece hooks makes the claim that the family actual plays a role in promoting sexism.
According to hooks the family is the place where people are socialized into believing that sexist practices are okay and natural. She goes on to site Hodge as supporting evidence to this belief (Jacobus 826). Hodges states, “Here is where the relationship of superordination- subordination, of superior-inferior, of master slave is first learned and accepted as ‘natural’(Jacobus 827). In this sentence and the paragraph from which it comes Hodges discusses what children learn and are taught in the family, thus suggesting it is the family where sexist ideas begins. He also talks about the ways in which sexism is implicating such as with the role of the man to be control part of the life of the family in several aspects (Jacobus 827).
She also goes on to discuss how the western culture’s family is a means of supporting oppression and sexist ideas. She uses another quote from Hodges to further emphasis this that says, “[the family] is the major training ground which initially conditions us to accept group oppression as the natural order” (Jacobus 827).
As I said there are many noteworthy points in this piece, but this one seems to be particularly eye-opening. Although, I never really thought about the impact the family had on feminism outside of putting women in stereotypical roles as the stay-home-parent, there does seem to be a link to family and sexist oppression. I agree that in our society we are raised in a certain way that allows for oppression to be accepted, at least when it comes to sexism.

Works Cited
Hooks, Bell. “The Significance of Feminist Movement.” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers .Ed. Lee A Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. pp.824-831.