Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance

by bell hooks

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Politics, Social Justice, Gender and Sexuality

15 pages

About the author

bell hooks (deliberately in lower-case; born Gloria Jean Watkins) was an African-American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern female perspective, she addressed race, class, and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism.

Reviews

[arimoanga · Rating 4 out of 5]

much of hooks's theory applies to biological assimilation tactics of the western militaries to contemporary sex tourism! bluntly but affirmatively written, hooks's explores the relevance of "imperialist nostalgia" to the yearning of exoticism by white colonizers, from foucault to vulgar university frat students. what she had written is deeply connected to my national identity as i come from a tropical country where pan-white people lodge into for a holiday, seamlessly mangled into the poorness of our streets but the richness of our sandbanks. truly a brilliant author who dauntlessly touches upon the compartmentilization of the west when talking about the very existence of colonialism.

[sk · Rating 5 out of 5]

rest in peace, bell hooks, you literally never miss.

[Kasey (Mir) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot, but I do think it was worth reading.

As I have encountered numerous times, Hooks writing continues to be poignant. While our views aren't necessarily the same, there are things I can agree and disagree with. Also, disagreeing with something isn't the same as disliking it.

Anyway, I can't get over the depiction of desire coming from a place of power. That place is where the individual has the power to possess and assert themselves as being transgressive. They themselves want to be part of this otherness without having that struggle. They want the aesthetics, the talent, and the culture without any of the pain involved. I have more thoughts, but maybe I need to just write an essay loooooool

[Lilith Dorsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a truly life changing book that allowed me to see manipulative post-colonial consumption of "otherness." I recommend this book to anthropologists, sociologists, and regular old humans.

[Devyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

bell hooks with incredible analysis, connections and critique per usual

[Lis Molina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una muy buena perspectiva sobre como se veo a la otredad con ojos mas politicos, de mercadotecnia y sexualidad