Self-love is also important and begins with the fostering of strong self-esteem. People therefore need to question and break down these ingrained systems. Lying is often condoned in patriarchal structures and sexist socialization. Lying is also often a way of asserting power and dominance or of manipulating all of these actions make love impossible. Truth-telling is essential in love, and lies erode trust. Children need guidance in the ways of love, and the adults in their lives must provide this guidance. Instead, parents need to learn to offer loving discipline. hooks is against any type of injustice that negates the human rights of children, such as forms of punishment like spanking or pinching. It is essential that the rights of children be upheld so that they can understand love. Childhood is where we first learn about love. It cannot exist where there is abuse or neglect and should not be confused with examples of care and affection. Hooks defines love as 'the will to nurture our own and another's spiritual growth' (36). We need to question and reevaluate our understandings of love in order to return to it. The patriarchy has had a negative impact on our understanding of love, including our ability to define and express it.

Love is not meaningless or irrelevant as the current cultural ethos suggests. This book is a call for a return to a love ethic. New York: William Morrow, 2018.īell hooks experienced a lack of love in childhood and, as an adult, sees how our culture has turned away from love. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful affirmation of just how profoundly she can.The following version of the book was used to create this study guide: hooks, bell. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation.

In thirteen concise chapters, hooks examines her own search for emotional connection and society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. In its place she offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness.Īs bell hooks uses her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, bell hooks (renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist) skewers our view of love as romance. we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet. The acclaimed first volume in bell hooks' 'Love Song to the Nation'

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