Madonna's Role in a Feminist Culture Essay

Her clothes accentuate her cleavage or have a sexual shock factor, such as wearing “sequined pasties…[that] coordinate with the rest of her attire”. The vulgar, sexual nature of her raps makes it impossible for her to not receive attention from the media. Another artist, Eve, dresses sexually to accentuate her body and appears in videos with music video models but raps about social issues like domestic violence. By comparing the nature of these artists and their music, Perry tries to show that young girls have very few role models in hip hop that promote positive feminists values and body images. But, she neglects to discuss other feminist artists she mentions in the essay such as Destiny’s Child and Mary J. Blige and how their lyrics and actions in the media allow young black girls to have positive role models that show a woman can be independent, strong, and beautiful in their own way. Perry’s focus on the more sexualized female artists in hip hop and how their shocking appearance and lyrics allow them to be as successful as their male counterparts took away from the development of her argument about conservative artists and their success. By leading the reader to believe that artists are either overly-sexual or conservative, Perry limits how the reader forms an opinion on why or why not young girls’ body image may be threatened by the media and the hip hop

Beyoncé Knowles’s Lemonade video album brings the words of Beyoncé into a visual media and shows the viewer a deeper meaning behind the album. After this video came out many articles came forward analyzing Lemonade. One article, in particular, that was intriguing is Bell Hooks “Moving Beyond Pain.” Hooks starts her article saying that the Lemonade video was created as a money-making, business strategy, but as the text continues the reader can conclude that “Moving Beyond Pain” is actually about African American women, and women in general, standing up for themselves.

Hooks writes that today she would be considered a well-paid member of the “Professional-managerial class” she rarely thinks of herself in relations to that class. She explains how she was taught at an early age, by her grandparents and parents, to assume that

bell hook is a famous feminist author who wrote the book “Feminism Is For Everybody” hooks attempt to create a quick, simple start on feminist history, theory, and politics to the masses who receive a misinformation, misunderstood, and maligned version of the feminist movement. Hooks says “To understand feminism it implies one has to necessarily understand sexism”.We define feminism as the advocacy of women 's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.Where she simply define and shows that being feminism does not mean women have to become mean or they are better than men,she simply saying that men and women need to be equal like the civil right movements. The book begins with a brief statement of feminist political positions, then discusses some history of the movement.She discusses the change in the movement from personal to groups where women have close relationships with one another and began to feel personally empowered by their participation in the establishment of large, and how some women feel like they are working for the high middle-class women.Every single time it doesn’t matter you a women or men, you will always have someone in the higher level than you.hooks feel like it will very exciting for the women who have the power to work with other so they could build each other up..Hooks views the formation of large women’s organizations as the beginning of a stage where the movement took on the role of

Chapter eight of Hooks briefly talks about neocolonialism by defining it as the focus “on who has conquered a territory, who has ownership, who has the right to rule” (hooks 2000). She puts into context the idea that white wealthy women have taken on colonialism when it comes to feminism by putting their problems as the priority and ruling problems that are seen by the world. Since they are the powerful ones their “feminist roles” are viewed at the real roles of feminism as more attention is brought them making those who do not fit in the wealthy white women in the shadows. I thought it was interesting that she used terms normally associated with the conquering and taking of land from the less powerful to describe what feminism has come to

Finally, hooks used the strategy of cause and effect in her writings. She writes “Since our society continues to be a primarily ‘Christian’ culture, masses of people continue to believe that God has ordained that women be subordinate to men in the domestic household.” (hooks, pg2) By writing this, she effectively analyzes the cause of the problems, and why our culture continues to be sexist. For those who have scientific minds, this statement carries

bell hooks gains the power and credibility of her audience through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing peace with the reader, and demonstrating honesty. Ethos shows an audience that the writer is credible, or expert in the subject of the agreement. bell hooks is widely known for being a writer, feminist thinker, and her academic background. She establishes her credentials through her personal struggles with understanding social class during adolescent. The reader gains respect for hooks as she takes the audience back to a time where they may have desired something, but never attained. For example she says, “As a child, [she] often wanted things money could buy that [her] parents could not afford and would not get”(hooks, 138). bell hooks writes to not only help others find strength to hold on to their desires, but to show how

With that being said, she is all for women’s political, economic, and social rights/equality. Readers who understand the definition of feminist may want to associate sexism and the degradation of women with feminism. Morgan intergrades her own personal views of hip hop along with her feminist and antisexism views to create a dramatic shift within the passage. One that draws in the readers in order to make them focus on one problem, she has with hip hop, then she interrupts that with the problem the hip hop industry as a whole as. Morgan goes on to say, “My decision to expose myself to the sexism of Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, or the Notorious B.I.G is really my plea to my bothers to tell me who they are. I need to know why they are so angry at me”. (Morgan,456) The latter part of the quote truly stands out. Using ‘why are they so angry at me’ suggest degrading even one woman in not only lyrics but also music videos, is also degrading every single women and girl. Morgan looks beyond the artist by going to look beyond what the hip hop artist wants you to hear, see, or believe. Joan Morgan suggested the sexism in rap music is undoubtedly a complex mask African Americans wear to hide and express their pain, similar to what poets do within their works. Morgan is not as concerned with the name calling and degradation, her concern is mainly the failure to love women especially the black women. The author makes the

It is important that we hold onto and cherish our past so that we may never be divided from it. One way hooks remains faithful to her working class past is by speaking or writing in an "anti-intellectual" way. When hooks feels she has an audience this would apply to, despite the criticism she may receive, she uses eye contact, speaking directly to the audience. As hook points out, "..., the use of a language and style of presentation that alienates most folks who are not also academically trained reinforces the notion that the academic world is separate from the real life, that everyday world where we constantly adjust our language and behavior to meet diverse needs" (90). It is important that people work to keep the academic world from being a separate world as bell hooks has done.

Through this book, the most important point she puts emphasis on is the acknowledgment of the complex interlocking of classism, racism and sexism. Bell Hooks is not a poor working-class any more,

“I can remember a dinner where I talked about the book and one person, in a big booming voice choking with laughter exclaimed, ‘what is there to be said about black women!” I had written… the existence of black women was often forgotten, that we were often ignored or dismissed…” (Hooks).

Within the excerpts of writing Sheryl Sandberg and bell hooks offer us, their focal point is feminism. Although this is the case, their reasonings for being a feminist are quite different. Sandberg focuses on rising in the career field as a woman, and hooks argues against her writing because she has a narrow definition of being a feminist. There are strong arguments for either side as to which is more correct.

Hooks asserts how stereotypes about African-American women are plagued within the feminist system, as many women of color endure a form of

Gloria Jean Watkins, known by her pen name Bell Hooks (the name of her great grandmother), was born September 25, 1952. She grew up to be the author of more than three dozen books, the topics of which range from gender, race, and class, to spirituality, and contemporary media. Hooks attended Stanford University, The University of Wisconsin, and The University of California, Santa Cruz, eventually earning her P.h.D. In her article, “Understanding Patriarchy,” Hooks argues that patriarchy isn’t only harmful to women, it’s harmful to men as well, in different ways. Patriarchy sets rigid gender roles that say women are to be docile, obedient, and nurturing, while men should be violent, dominating, and aggressive. This ideal greatly emotionally stunts men, and makes it so that they cannot express themselves in any way other than aggression. In this article, Hooks was very effective in explaining and giving examples as to why the patriarchy negatively affects both men and women, and that it is up to both to break free from these constraints and work together to end the patriarchy.

Although Jan Van Eyck was one of the most influential artists during his time period, his work, Lucca Madonna is fairly unknown. Whilst researching Jan Van Eyck the work rarely appeared unless one research specifically the name.