A potent and electrifying critique of today’s feminist movement
announcing a fresh new voice in Black feminism
Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and
paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about
meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but
food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a
living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often,
however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on
increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize
these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both
internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title.
Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own
myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual
orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in
solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct
likelihood that some women are oppressing others?
In her searing
collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of
the modern feminist movement arguing that it has chronically failed
to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own
experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with
incisive commentary on politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental
health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable
indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has
written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live
out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.