From the Bookshelf of The Circle of Incoherent Ramblers …

All About Love: New Visions

bell hooks

Start date: January 2, 2021

Finish date: February 1, 2021

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Feb 16, 2021 Anna rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: womanism-feminism

"Estrangement from the realm of the senses is a direct product of overindulgence, of acquiring too much. This is why living simply is a crucial part of healing."

Overall, this was an enjoyable book. Lots of insightful one-liners and passages that inspired deep self-reflection. Chapter 10, Romance: Sweet Love and Chapter 12, Healing: Redemptive Love were probably my two favorite chapters.

The reason why I rated this so low is because I was absolutely appalled by how hooks spoke of Monica Lewinsky "Estrangement from the realm of the senses is a direct product of overindulgence, of acquiring too much. This is why living simply is a crucial part of healing."

Overall, this was an enjoyable book. Lots of insightful one-liners and passages that inspired deep self-reflection. Chapter 10, Romance: Sweet Love and Chapter 12, Healing: Redemptive Love were probably my two favorite chapters.

The reason why I rated this so low is because I was absolutely appalled by how hooks spoke of Monica Lewinsky and Nicole Brown Simpson. Speaking of Ms. Simpson, hooks wrote that perhaps she didn't leave her abusive marriage with OJ because she was "attached to a superficially glamorous lifestyle among the rich and famous" and that she was addicted to "power and wealth." I literally wrote "YIKES" next to this passage because I found it to be 1. disgusting, and 2. it perpetuates the societal expectation that domestic violence survivors should leave in order to stop the abuse, rather than the abuser being responsible for his own actions.

Speaking about Ms. Lewinsky, hooks wrote that the "young woman" involved with Clinton "manipulates facts and details, and ultimately prostitutes herself by selling her story for material gain because she is greedy for fame and money, and society condones this get-rich-quick scheme. Her greed is even more intense because she also wants to be seen as a victim. With the boldness of any con artist working the capitalist addiction to fantasy, she attempts to rewrite the script of their consensual exchange of pleasure so that it can appear to be a love story." This whole passage is just so intensely horrible that I almost stopped reading the book entirely. It invalidates Ms. Lewinsky's experience and again, is placing the blame on the victim rather than the abuser. Disgusting.

There is no doubt that this book holds great potential as a resource to think critically about one's own life. But passages like the ones I quoted above could easily alienate a reader and make them feel as if they're excluded from hooks' vision of love. For these reasons, I offer a 2.5 star rating. ...more

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Oct 28, 2019 Francesca marked it as to-read

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