Customer Reviews

Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations

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bell hooks's speaks to us, elegantly, clearly, and passionately about the culture of the margin, about disempowered people and their culture. But even more incredibly, she cuts right through crap, and fearlessly breaks things down for us, articulating truths, hopes and dreams I have never seen discussed anywhere else. bell hooks uses her keen intellect and her brilliant common sense to examine not only the materialistic and physical constraints of racist and sexist oppression, she also identifies the psychological, spiritual and emotional; individual and communal injury and trauma that is experienced. Then, she gives us hope, for revolution, for decolonization, not just of our bodies, but our minds and hearts. Reading bell hooks, for me, is like listening to an incredibly wise and gentle girlfriend, who can both hold your hand, and beat the living hell out of anyone trying to do you wrong.

bell hooks does an excellent job in exploring pop culture and its relationship to African Americans. I found all of the essays interesting but was particularly moved by Seduced by Violence No More in which I felt like I was slapped across the face. There are sections in that particular essay that read as if hooks had had a personal window into my life! Other essays that stood out to me included Crying Game meets The Body Guard, Misrepresenting the Black Underclass, and Censorship from Right to Left. I recommend this book to anyone interested in hearing a powerful direct view on pop culture and its effects.

bell hooks does an excellent job in exploring pop culture and its relationship to African Americans. I found all of the essays interesting but was particularly moved by Seduced by Violence No More, Crying Game meets The Body Guard, Misrepresenting the Black Underclass, and Censorship from Right to Left. I recommend this book to anyone interested in hearing a powerful direct view on pop culture and its effects.

I came across bell hooks very recently. I have found her work to be very direct and very, very challenging. Resisting Reresentations has done a lot of things to my mind. Although I consider myself "in-the-now" with ideas on social issues, after reading this book I am left with a feeling of re-birth. hooks speaks of many issues I agree with (and some I am not so sure I swallow completely). These issues and hooks' analysis of them has made me learn to laterally think and critically observe our world. I am a woman who believes in the eradication of sexism on all levels but now I must make my belief the engine to keep the eradication machine existent. Any woman, or man, who needs inspiration to challenge the many institutions that support racism, sexism and captalism start with bell hooks. She forces you to use your brain and think. This is a quality that many intellectualists fail to possess.

I've read a few of bell hooks' books and I do think she is a great thinker and writer, however, I don't think this is her best work. Overall, I did like the book, but in places it does seem like she is too defensive about conflicts she has with other famous people. It is a fine line of critiquing others, so I can't say that she was wrong or anything...I just think she undermined herself in some places. Also, this was published in 1994, so it is a bit dated although I would argue, still relevant. I guess I'm only comparing this to some of her other books, so if I was to read this without comparison I would probably think it was pretty right on and daring, because bell hooks is usually right on and daring! bell hooks does what she does best in this book--great analysis in accessible terms. You don't have to be an academic to read this, but it isn't a dumbed-down polemic either. I enjoyed the book and learned a lot. I would recommend this book, but you might also want to check out some of her other books too!

bell hooks (all lower-case letters; born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952) is an American author, feminist, and social activist. She has written many books, such as Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, killing rage: Ending Racism, and many more.

She writes in the Introduction to this 1994 book, "All the essays and dialogues in 'Outlaw Culture' emerge from a practical engagement with cultural practices and cultural icons who are defined as on the edge, as pushing the limits, disturbing the conventional, acceptable politics of representation... These essays reflect the desire to construct frameworks where border crossing will not be evoked simply as a ... mental exercise that condones the movement of the insurgent intellectual mind across new frontiers..."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Again and again, I have to insist that feminist solidarity rooted in a commitment to progressive politics must include a space for rigorous critique, for dissent, or we are doomed to reproduce in progressive communities the very forms of domination we seek to oppose." (Pg. 67)
"While I can agree that there is always the risk that public disagreement and dissent may reinforce white racist assumptions about black identity, there are just too few all-black settings for us to maintain silence while waiting for the best 'politically correct' settings to speak freely and openly. Evoking 'betrayal of the race' effectively acts to silence dissenting voices." (Pg. 70)
"Many black men have a profound investment in the perpetuation and maintenance of rape culture. So much of their sense of value and self-esteem is hooked into the patriarchal macho image..." (Pg. 110)
"A mixture of racist and sexist thinking informs the way color-caste hierarchies detrimentally affect the lives of black females differently from black males. Light skin and long, straight hair continue to be traits that define a female as beautiful and desirable in racist white imagination and in the colonized black mind set." (Pg. 179)
"I struggle a great deal with the phone, because I think the telephone is very dangerous to our lives in that it gives us such an illusory sense that we are connecting." (Pg. 228)

This is certainly one amazing book. bell hooks superbly crafts her argument to truly make her readers think, to make them look at seemingly clear-cut issues in a different light. hooks shows very convincingly that there are many issues below the surface that we must explore if we are ever to have true equity and equality in our society. She cleverly exposes some of the subtle ways in which the powers that be maintain their power, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unwittingly, and she shows how the latter way is the most insidious one and does the most damage.
At the same time, hooks is not always true to her word. She demands for herself complete freedom from censorship but in her own way attempts to censor or at least discredit those women who might disagree with her. Second, I appreciate her condemnation of black violence, but following that with a "I condemn, but..."
makes one wonder about her true feelings. And in her essay on Columbus, hooks does exhibit her limited knowledge of American Indian issues. An excellent book to force readers to examine their own thoughts and actions but even better if people read between the lines and expose hooks' own prejudices.

I had to read this book for a college course and having to consistently "prove" the author right became very difficult. The author tries to discuss minority inequality, while dominantly discussing blacks and whites, leaving other minorities to unfairly fend for themselves. The author is a rough feminist out to prove her specific agenda without being well rounded or offering multiple sides to an issue. Furthermore, this book is quickly growing out-of-date. Great topic, but I'd recommend searching for a more balanced and informative author.

bell hooks is amazing. having read other books by her, I especially enjoyed this one for its relevance to current social issues. a must read.