Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

Chapter 6 is concerned with the impact of sexism on women’s perceptions of their value, a value that is all too often based on appearances and evaluated by men. hooks discusses the relief of comfortable clothing and shoes with as much emphasis as women’s need for “healthy self-esteem and self-love” (31).

Early in the history of feminism, a denial of interest in beauty and fashion divided women in the movement, and eventually fashion, “(which was totally male-dominated in those days)” (32), changed in response to assertions that sexist styles for women were no longer acceptable. “[D]iverse styles of clothing” (32) that appealed to the diverse preferences of women became available. This change in the fashion industry was important because “the pathological, life-threatening aspects of appearance obsession” (33) were encouraging unhealthy behaviors in women, like “compulsive eating and compulsive starvation” (33).

hooks blames “our nation’s obsession with judging females of all ages on the basis of how we look” (33) for the eating disorders that continue to plague women today. That women of all ages are subjected to this scrutiny is evident in the fact that “the reality of aging in patriarchal society” (34) led early feminists “to adopt anew the old sexist notions of feminine beauty” (34).