Feminist theory and legal strategy Book

The biggest challenge faced by feminists today concerns why the world and values envisioned by western Feminism continue to remain elusive despite nearly two centuries of struggle. Emerging from the embers of the Second Wave in the 1980s, bell hooks was one of the first to answer this question by bringing to attention the hitherto exclusionary nature of the movement and its limited focus on white women from middle-class backgrounds.

Published in 1984'five years before the term 'intersectionality' was coined' From Margin to Center brings the issues of women marginalised by race and class to the forefront of the struggle for feminist change, offering an effective critique of the Second Wave alongside a revolutionary manifesto for ending sexist oppression.

Indeed, hooks begins by challenging the broadly (or narrowly) defined feminist goal of making women the social equals of men: according to her, since all men aren't equal in a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want equality with? Implicitly she challenges White feminism's assertion of all women sharing a common fate by bringing to fore how each woman's material conditions (i.e. our location along the lines of racial and class privilege) act in conjunction with gender and sexuality to determine our vision for equality. hooks thus identifies a radical, systemic overhaul of a culture based in the domination of the many by the few as the only way to end sexist oppression and benefit all women.

Moreover, by talking of 'sexist oppression,' hooks identifies women and men as stakeholders of feminist change, and attacks the dualistic thinking that forces much of feminist energies on taking on male supremacy instead of also working on self-affirmation for women. Unlike many theorists of her time, hooks' approach is more holistic and radical'abolitionist rather than reformist'and takes into account the need for positive social as well as sexual identities that can be brought about by changing prevalent norms instead of advocating for the creation of 'safe spaces' within the present hegemonic and heteronormative structure.

From Margin to Center attempts to reorient feminist thought by centering the need to rethink the nature of work, bringing an end to hegemonic violence and sexual oppression, and the overall aim to effect revolutionary change instead of mere reforms that do not challenge the status quo. It recognises the gradual nature of change while also pressing on the need to avoid narrow and/or atomistic goals, and sheds new light on issues such as 'women's work,' heterosexism, and childrearing. With its call for re-organising the movement outside of hegemonic lines, the book also focuses on attending to basic and foundational goals such as literacy in addition to the programmes and concessions for more advanced strides by women that are already underway, thereby closing the gap between praxis and theory, and making a truly accessible, mass-based movement.

At a time where social conservatism and economic neoliberalism dominate, the ideas presented by bell hooks in this book resound with more urgency and vigour than ever before. As such, it remains the most comprehensive text on feminist radicalism in the West'the first chapter alone tackles enough dogma to radicalise anyone'and is highly recommended to all those who wish to understand feminism better.

In summary: "Feminism is the struggle to end sexist oppression. Its aim is not to benefit solely any specific group of women, any particular race or class of women. It does not privilege women over men. It has the power to transform in a meaningful way all our lives. Most importantly, feminism is neither a lifestyle nor a ready-made identity or role one can step into(...)but a political commitment to radical change."