feminist theory: from margin to center by bell hooks

feminist theory: from margin to center
bell hooks
South End Press; 2nd edition (2000)

有回，黑人種族女性主義學者bell hooks和幾個老姐妹去看wim wenders的“wings of desire”，不一會就把批判的神經觸動，為甚麼天使總是白人？(the basic question of why all the angels were white?, from “representing whiteness- seeing wings of desire”)

或簡問一句：「相信有天使的人，他們心目中想像的天使是否相同膚色？」bell hooks 自嘲自己為“cultural terrorist”，這是看bell hooks 著作第一回的印象。bell hooks 在學界或婦運界的確是trouble maker，但那種麻煩來自她是一位實踐者，她走入中小學、社區教學，同時亦著作不少給青年人的教材，令他們了解種族、特別是black sisterhood 的自身。

作為一個a minority in a minority，看似已是學術界或人權運動的老話，但bell hooks 在六年前的著作“Feminist Theory : From Margin to Center”即指出：

“just as our lives are not fixed or static but always changing, our theory must remain fluid, open, responsive to new information.“

近來荷里活電影出現了不少種族「社區」處境喜劇，如近的：

barbershop (2002)
barbershop 2: back in business (2004)
are we there yet? （2005）
the honeymooners(2005)
beauty shop(2005)
big momma's house 2 (2006)
something new (2006)
last holiday (2005) (王穎作品）

我們要理解的是，黑人作品已不單是小說、音樂或處境電視喜劇，即使是小本投資，但電影市場還是有能力容納這類片種，即在電影言說過程中以「消費」的方式去展現自己種群的身份認同。

stuart hall在其論文”who needs ‘identity’?“開中明義的說：

within the anti-essentialist critique of ethnic, racial, and national conceptions of cultural identity and the ‘politics of location’ some adventurous theoretical conceptions have been sketched in their most grounded forms. What, then is the need fro a further debate about identity’? Who needs it?( p.15)

bell hooks 在上述的著作中，彷彿在回應stuart hall 的問題外，更有力的向學術界、特別是學界女性研究學者當頭棒喝：

Opportunistic women applaud feminist success, then tell us the movement is no longer needed, as "all women have improved their lives" in a world where women are fast becoming the majority of our nation's poor, where single mothers are pathologized, where most females of all ages have no access to basic health care. Yet given these dire realities, visionary feminist discourse is increasingly only talked about in the corridors of the educated elite.(vix)

正是bell hooks 走到群眾當中，主張社區教育，她不甘”feminist discourse is increasingly only talked about in the corridors of the educated elite.“，正如那些自以為洞悉本地事務、寫寫blog 自我完成，你一言我一語在網上討論，不就是那些 fakers in the corridors 嗎？

supportive readings:

"Teaching Community; A Pedagogy of Hope" (bell hooks)

"Feminism Is for Everybody : Passionate Politics" (bell hooks)

"Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (Live Girls Series)" (Seal Press (WA))