Reference no: EM132866596

Question 1: Define what bell hooks means by sexist ideology and what does sexist ideology teaches women?

• Sexism means discrimination based on sex or gender, or the belief that because men are superior to women, discrimination is justified. Such a belief can be conscious or unconscious. In sexism, as in racism, the differences between two (or more) groups are viewed as indications that one group is superior or inferior. Sexist discrimination against girls and women is a means of maintaining male domination and power. The oppression or discrimination can be economic, political, social, or cultural. In regards to the concept of a "common oppression", bell hooks claims that: "The idea of common oppression was a false and corrupt platform disguising and mystifying the true nature of women's varied and complex social reality. Women's liberationists made shared victimization the basis for woman bonding but this participates in sexist ideology that teaches women that being a female is to be a victim".
• Bell Hooks states that "Bonding between a chosen circle of women who strengthen their ties by excluding and devaluing women outside their group closely resembles the type of personal bonding between women that has always occurred under patriarchy". Sisterhood involves shared sentiment against sexism, and in order to share the true value of Sisterhood, women-to-women relationships must stop being influenced by male supremacist values. Sexist ideology brainwashes men to believe that their violent abuse of women is beneficial when it is not. Yet feminist activists affirm this logic when we should be constantly naming these acts as expressions of per­ verted power relations, general lack of control over one's actions, emotional powerlessness, extreme irrationality, and in many cases, outright insanity. Passive male absorption of sexist ideology enables them to interpret this disturbed behavior positively. As long as men are brainwashed to equate violent abuse of women with privilege, they will have no understanding of the damage done to themselves, or the damage they do to others, and no motivation to change.