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Bell Hooks

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“It's really important to have life strategies and part of that is sort of knowing where you want to go so you can have a map that helps you to get there. And the traditional way tells us oh we get into school and someone else advises us, helps us, but that often does not work for African Americans female and male. Because what works for the dominant culture often does not work for us.”

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Author:Bell Hooks
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“The time has come to tell the truth. Again. There is no love without justice. Men and women who cannot be just deny themselves and everyone they choose to be intimate with the freedom to know mutual love. If we remain unable to imagine a world where love can be recognized as a unifying principle that can lead us to seek and use power wisely, then we will remain wedded to a culture of domination that requires us to choose power over love.”

IfsKnowsMenWorldUseCultureJusticePrinciplesImagineMen And WomenDenyIntimateTelling The TruthMutualDominationNo LoveUnifyingMutual Love
Author:Bell Hooks
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“I still think it's important for people to have a sharp, ongoing critique of marriage in patriarchal society — because once you marry within a society that remains patriarchal, no matter how alternative you want to be within your unit, there is still a culture outside you that will impose many, many values on you whether you want them to or not.”

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Author:Bell Hooks
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“Dominator culture has tried to keep us all afraid, to make us choose safety instead of risk, sameness instead of diversity. Moving through that fear, finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.”

WorldGivingMovingValuesCultureProcessCommunityDifferencesRiskDiversityFindingsSafetyMeaningfulSamenessShared Values
Book:Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope
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“Fame is fun, money is useful, celebrity can be exciting, but finally life is about optimal well-being and how we achieve that in dominator culture, in a greedy culture, in a culture that uses so much of the world’s resources. How do men and women, boys and girls, live lives of compassion, justice and love? And I think that’s the visionary challenge for feminism and all other progressive movements for social change.”

ThinkingMenWorldWellsUseLife IsCultureGirlFunSocialChallengesJusticeCompassionBoysFeminismAchieveMovementFameMen And WomenResourcesAnd LoveExcitingWell BeingLive LifeProgressiveGreedySocial ChangeVisionariesBoy And GirlOptimalProgressivismJustice And LoveProgressive Movement
Author:Bell Hooks
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“This fear of maleness that they inspire estranges men from every female in their lives to greater or lesser degrees, and men feel the loss. Ultimately, one of the emotional costs of allegiance to patriarchy is to be seen as unworthy of trust. If women and girls in patriarchal culture are taught to see every male, including the males with whom we are intimate, as potential rapists and murderers, then we cannot offer them our trust, and without trust there is no love.”

IfsMenFeelsCultureGirlLossGreaterEmotionalInspireTaughtCostOffersDegreesFemaleMalesIncludingIntimatePatriarchyMurdererAllegianceUnworthyNo LoveWithout TrustMaleness
Book:The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
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“In patriarchal culture men are especially inclined to see love as something they should receive without expending effort. More often than not they do not want to do the work that love demands. When the practice of love invites us to enter a place of potential bliss that is at the same time a place of critical awakening and pain, many of us turn our backs on love.”

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Author:Bell Hooks
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“In our culture privacy is often confused with secrecy. Open, honest, truth-telling individuals value privacy. We all need spaces where we can be alone with thoughts and feelings - where we can experience healthy psychological autonomy and can choose to share when we want to. Keeping secrets is usually about power, about hiding and concealing information.”

WantNeedsFeelingsValuesCultureIndividualSpaceSecretShareHonestInformationHealthyPsychologicalConfusedPrivacyTelling The TruthHidingAutonomySecrecyThoughts And FeelingsHonest TruthConcealingKeeping Secrets
Author:Bell Hooks
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“This rule of silence is upheld when the culture refuses everyone easy access even to the word “patriarchy.” Most children do not learn what to call this system of institutionaliz ed gender roles, so rarely do we name it in everyday speech. This silence promotes denial. And how can we organize to challenge and change a system that cannot be named?”

ChildrenCultureNamesEasyChallengesSilenceRolesSpeechEverydayRefuseGenderAccessDenialOrganizePatriarchySilence IsGender RolesEasy Access
Book:The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
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