Bell Hooks Article Summary

In the article, bell hooks takes a historical look at black females as media spectators. Bell hooks is a black feminist who calls attention to the negative aspects of white supremacy and capitalist patriarchy. In addition to spectatorship, this article critiques Hollywood’s portrayal of black women and criticizes the lack of more substantial role opportunities. It acknowledges the importance of mass media as a powerful place for critical intervention.

Bell hooks begins her piece with a definition of the "gaze." "When thinking about black female spectators, I remember being punished as a child for staring, for those hard intense direct looks children would give grownups, looks that were seen as confrontational, as gestures of resistance, challenges to authority." For hooks (and any black person) the gaze was a political entity in life. Not only was the gaze controlled by white authorities but also by black parents. As a child, hooks explained that the attempts made to repress black peoples right to gaze only produces a staggering desire to look, "an oppositional gaze." Michel Foucault states that looking was a sign of rebellion and that th

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1369
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)