ginny t. hooks

Oh no. I am the whitest white girl on the planet, and yet I have to do my presentation on bell hooks. This should be interesting…

“To make one’s self vulnerable to the seduction of difference, to seek an encounter with the Other, does not require that one relinquish forever one’s mainstream positionality. When race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups…can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders…affirm their power-over in intimate relations with the Other.” (M 367)

So that explains why adopting “ethnic” babies from underdeveloped countries is so in with rich, white celebrities these days! I realize that hook’s theory is more about sexual relations between different races, but take out all the sexy bits, and this theory explains this phenomenon perfectly.

Maybe celebs like Angelina Jolie and Madonna are truly interested in using their wealth and (dubious) power to better the lives of children less fortunate than they, or maybe, they’re simply “seduced by difference;” they relish the thrill of getting “a bit of the Other” that comes from the addition of an ethnic baby to their families. These adoptions enable the stars to experience the exotic cultures of the children they take in without ever having to step down from the comfort of their cushy and sparkly ivory towers. “Race and ethnicity [have] become commodified” and Jolie and Madonna are just the first stars to snap up the latest “ethnic baby” accessories. It’s only a matter of time before celebutards like Blechney Spears and Paris Swillton jump on the black-baby-as-bling bandwagon. It’s a slow road to Hell, my friends.

And on a (mostly) unrelated note, let me just say how much I’m looking forward to slogging through the phallic forest tonight in class. That is to say, I am a feminism novice. I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life, and in all honesty, at this point, I’m in 1950’s housewife mode. My husband pays the bills and takes care of all of our finances; most of the time, I don’t even know how much money we have in the bank at any given moment. I don’t even have a credit card in my name! *gasp* I rely on him for practically everything, and I know that’s a major no-no in these (post)modern times, so I’m really looking forward to getting a crash course on being a Womyn from the experts. Grrrl Power!