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Philosopher

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bell hooks

1952–2021 · Feminist theory · Modern

bell hooks, the pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins, spelled in lowercase, wrote on feminism, teaching, race, and love. The lowercase is a choice about the work rather than the celebrity of the name, and it should be kept. In All About Love she argues that love is a practice: an intention and an action, not a feeling that arrives and excuses everything.

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Love is as love does. The word works better as a verb than as a noun. She draws on a definition associated with M. Scott Peck and makes it hers in a feminist argument that will not separate love from justice. Ain't I a Woman and Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center are the earlier political books, and they are not warmed over by the later one.

Teaching to Transgress treats the classroom as a place where freedom is practised, not as a neutral delivery of content. She writes a direct American English. The directness is why the love sentences are easy to put on a mug and why the mug is smaller than the chapter. This library has two secured sentences from All About Love. It does not invent a third.

Two secured sentences from All About Love are kept, and a third is added from Teaching to Transgress, page 12, so the love book and the teaching book stay distinct. A fourth invented line was not added.

Start here

All About Love, the opening chapters, after a look at the table of contents of Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.

You get the love sentences in their argument, and you see that the argument has a political bookshelf behind it.

Quotations

“Love is as love does. Love is an act of will — namely, both an intention and an action.”

bell hooks · Feminist theory

loveethicsvirtue
Well attested
Meaning & application
“The word 'love' is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb.”

bell hooks · Feminist theory

loveselfethics
Well attested
Meaning & application
“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.”

bell hooks · Feminist theory

knowledgefreedomsociety
Well attested
Meaning & application

Key ideas

  • Love as act

    Intention and action, not a feeling that excuses harm.

  • The verb

    A noun-love lets people stay passive. The grammar is not magic. The deeds are the test.

  • Feminism from the margin

    Race, class, and gender together. The early books are not cancelled by the later tone.

  • Teaching

    The classroom as a practice of freedom, in Teaching to Transgress.

Major works

  • Ain't I a Woman (1981)

    Black women and feminism. Not a love lyric.

  • Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984)

    The political argument.

  • Teaching to Transgress (1994)

    Education as the practice of freedom.

  • All About Love (2000)

    The two sentences this library secures.

Influences

Influenced

  • a generation of feminist writers on love and classrooms

Common misreadings

  • She does not say feelings are fake. She says they do not get to be the whole definition.
  • All About Love does not replace the earlier books on race and feminism.
  • The lowercase name is part of the citation, not a typo to correct.

Famous lines bell hooks never said

None of the lines this library files for bell hooks is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

FAQ

What is the best book to start with?

All About Love, the opening chapters, after a look at the table of contents of Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. You get the love sentences in their argument, and you see that the argument has a political bookshelf behind it.

What is the most famous quote?

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for bell hooks that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Love is as love does. Love is an act of will — namely, both an intention and an action.” (All About Love: New Visions, Well attested).

What is the most misquoted line?

None of the lines this library files for bell hooks is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Love as act: Intention and action, not a feeling that excuses harm.