Reviews for Fluid dynamics of viscoelastic liquids

The average rating for Fluid dynamics of viscoelastic liquids based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-01-23 00:00:00 Jonathan Tidd Another iconic feminist text from bell hooks. I love that hooks's writing always takes mainstream feminist thinking and elevates it. She encourages us to deeply consider how racism and classism intersect with sexism to further marginalize women of color and poor women. She argues that we should conceptualize feminism as a radical, revolutionary movement as opposed to an individual lifestyle. Her writing, while intelligent and replete with critical analysis, remains accessible and close to the human lived experience. For example, here is a quote about how she interrogates why feminism is not just about equality with men, even though we often market it that way: "Women in lower class and poor groups, particularly those who are non-white, would not have defined women's liberation as women gaining social equality with men since they are continually reminded in their everyday lives that all women do not share a common social status. Concurrently, they know that many males in their social groups are exploited and oppressed. Knowing that men in their groups do not have social, political, and economic power, they would not deem it liberatory to share their social status… from the very onset of the women's liberation movement, [women in lower class and poor groups, particularly those who are non-white] were suspicious of feminism precisely because they recognized the limitations inherent in its definition. They recognized the possibility that feminism defined as social equality with men might easily become a movement that would primarily affect the social standing of white women in middle and upper class groups while affecting only in a very marginal way the social status of working class and poor women." I would highly recommend this text to everyone, especially those who are interested in feminism who hold dominant identities (e.g., white, middle to upper middle class, etc.) hooks's writing challenged me to think about my own complicity, both as a man and as someone who comes from a higher socioeconomic status. When she wrote about how writing about feminism is often too secluded and filled with academic jargon to be understandable, accessible, or even helpful at all for poor women and women who have not had access to education, I was forced to confront my own privilege of attending somewhat elite schools and universities throughout my life and my own complicity in classism. Even in sections where I disagreed with her - I felt that she could have done a better job discussing how heteronormative lifestyles do in fact perpetuate patriarchy, for example the wedding industrial complex - I still appreciated her thought process and her passion. I will end this review by integrating a few passages from an early section of the book, about feminism and its more revolutionary roots: "The willingness to see feminism as a lifestyle choice rather than a political commitment reflects the class nature of the movement. It is not surprising that the vast majority of women who equate feminism with alternative lifestyle are from middle class backgrounds, unmarried, college-educated, often students who are without many of the social and economic responsibilities that working class and poor women who are laborers, parents, homemakers, and wives confront daily… Often emphasis on identity and lifestyle is appealing because it creates a false sense that one is engaged in praxis. However, praxis within any political movement that aims to have a radical transformative impact on society cannot be solely focused on creating spaces wherein would-be-radicals experience safety and support. Feminist movement to end sexist oppression actively engages participants in revolutionary struggle. Struggle is rarely safe or pleasurable."

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-22 00:00:00 Artin Nazarian 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."