bell hooks: CULTURAL CRITICISM AND TRANSFORMATION

THESIS:

TRANSGRESSION (TRANSGRESSIVE ACTS) DOES NOT MAKE YOU RADICAL --- BUT RATHER --- WHAT YOU ARE TRANSGRESSING IN THE SERVICE OF….

ANALYYIC CONTEXTS:

1) PATRIARCHY

2) CAPITALISM

3) WHITE SUPREMACY (ASIDE: IN OUR CLASS WE HAVE USED THE TERM “CULTURAL HEGEMONY” OR “THE HEGEMONIC ORDER OF ‘WHITENESS’ IN SOCIETY”)

THE WORLD CULTURE OF IDEAS INTERPLAYS WITH (MINORITY) SENSIBILITIES ====> “POPULAR CULTURE” [MEDIA, MOVIES, HOLLYWOOD] CAN BE A LINK BETWEEN THE TWO

EX: MINORITIES/WOMEN LIVE OUT LIVES OF “STEREOTYPICAL DELUSION” [SEXIST AND RACIST ANS CAPITALIST FANTASIES/ FALLACY]

POPULAR CULTURE REFLECTS VALUES AND VALUE CONTRADITIONS ====> WE LIVE WITH CONTRADITIONS BECAUSE OF THE VALUES THAT POP CULTURE PROJECTS (DISTORTED CONSCIOUSNESS) ====è

EX: “THE BLACK PRESIDENT” ON THE SERIES “24” IS AN IDEOLOGICAL DISCOURSE ON THE VALUE OF WESTERN DEMOCRACY THAT IS CONTRADICTED BY SOCIAL REALITY OF OUR EVERYDAY LIFE.

WHAT ARE THE COMMON DISCOURSES IN WESTERN MAINSTREAM MEDIA?

A) DEMOCRACY

B) CAPITALIST

C) LIBERALISM

D) WESTERN SUPREMACY (“EUROCENTRISM”)

IT IS IMPARATIVE IN THIS CONTEXT THAT WE DEVELOP OUR “CRITICAL THINKING” ====> CRITICAL THINKING IS MORE THAN JUST A TOOL FOR SURVIVAL/ JOB, IT IS A PROACTIVE SENSE OF AGENCY [THE ABILITY TO SEE SELF IN CONTEXT --- INSTITUTIONAL, STRUCTURAL DIMENSION FOR IDENITY AND POLITICS]

FROM hooks EXPERIENCE TEACHING IN DIFFERENT MILEUX --- YALE, OBERLIN AND HARLEM --- SHE HAS COME TO SEE THAT ALL HER STUDENTS WERE SIMILAR IN ABILITY AND POTENTIAL BUT DIFFERENT IN THEIR “SENSE OF AGENCY” =====> SOME GROUPS HAVE A PRIVILEGED SENS OF AGENCY, SOME GROUPS HAVE A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT ===> MINORITIES/ WOMEN/ DISADVANTAGED GROUPS HAVE TO LEARN TO QUESTION ENTITLEMENT --- OR PUT OTHERWISE, THE DISADVANTAGED HAVE TO DEVELOP A SENSE OF SELF-WORTH AND ENTITLEMENT RIGHTS.

{ASIDE: THIS BEGS THE QUESTIONFOR hooks AND US OF “HOW” TO DEVELOP/BECOME A TRANSFORMATIVE FORCE FOR EMANCIPATION AND EMPOWERMENT ======> HOW DO WE INTERVENE ON THE STATUS QUO????}

hooks ARGUES THAT PEOPLE TODAY TEND TO BELIEVE AND ARGUE THAT [POP CULTURE] IMAGERY DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING OR IT IS NOT TIED TO THE “REAL WORLD” ====> BUT SHE ARGUES THERE IS A DIRECT LINK BETWEEN [POP CULTURE] IMAGERY AND DFINITIONS OF ACCEPTABLE AND NON-ACCEPTABLE IN SOCIETY.

1) POPULAR CULTURE CREATES AND PERPETUATES NEGATIVE SEXIST AND RACIST STEREOTYPES.

2) MOVIES/MEDIA ARE LEAD PROPAGANDA MACHINES TO INSTILL HEGEMONIC ORDER.

3) WHITE SUPREMACY FRAMES A WORLD THAT WE ALL HAVE A RELATIONSHIP TO {SYSTEM NOT INDIVIDUALS} ====> WE ARE ALL IN SOME WAY IN COLLUSION WITH AND PART OF THE OVERARCHING APPARATUS OF WHITE HEGEMONY.

CULTURAL ICONS:

AS AN ACADEMIC, TO SUBSTANTIATE HER ARGUMENT {RATHER THAN JUST “SAY” IT} SHE GOES ON IN THE FILM TO EXAMINE CURRENT CULTURAL ICONS AND PHENOMENON:

1) OJ SIMPSON TRIAL =====> A MEDIA SPECTACLE ABOUT “SUPRISING REACTIONS” --- AT THE DEEP REPRESENTATIONAL STRUCTURE HOWEVER, IT DISPLAYS THE PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING AND CROSS-RACIAL TENTACLES OF PATRIARCHY (MALE VIOLENCE, MISOGYNY).

2) MADONNA =======> THE INNOVATIVE FEMINIST TRANSGRESSOR TURNED TO “THE REPRODUCTION OF STARDOM” --- NEW IMAGES ARE REPLETE WITH AND CONSISTENT TO THE PATRIARCHIAL/WHITE SUPREMIST FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD CULTURE OF IDEAS. {bell hooks ======> COULD NOT GET ANYBODY AT “SPIN” MAGAZINE WHERE SHE IS A CONTRIBUTING EDITOR INTERESTED IN MADONNA’S RACISM – I.E., HER FORMER CAREER USE/EXPLOITATON OF “BLACK MALE” IMAGERY AND HER CURRENT CONDEMNATION OF BLACK MALES AS “THE MOST MISOGNYIST MEN.”

3) SPIKE LEE =====> THE CRITIQUE OF CINIMATIC METAPHORS OF “BLACKNESS” --- LEE’S THESIS IS THAT BLACKNESS HAS BECOME COMMODIFIED BY POPULAR CULTURE AND NOW IS PRODUCED BY WHITE SOCIETY.

4) RAP MUSIC ======> IS THE PERPETUATION OF COLONIALISM FOR YOUNG WHITE CONSUMERS (MISOGYNY, VIOLENCE, PUGULISTIC EROTICISM, SEXIST/PORNOGRAPHIC IMAGERY AND REPRESENTATION) ====> RAPPERS MAKE A STRATEGIC CHOICE TO OFFER UP THE NEW COLONIALISM IN THE FORM OF OBJECTIFYING BLACK FEMALE BODIES AND OVERTLY AFFIRM/EMBRACE THE COLOUR-CASTE SYSTEM [MEDIA-GENERATED CINEMATIC METAPHORS], AND THEY LIVE OUT THE CONSEQUENCES =====> WE MUST {LIKE SPIKE LEE} CRITIQUE THESE CHOICES AND THERE CONSEQUENCES.