{"id":564,"date":"2021-06-16T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T15:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/?p=564"},"modified":"2021-06-16T15:09:01","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T15:09:01","slug":"stripping-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/?p=564","title":{"rendered":"Stripping the Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My first introduction to Bell Hooks was almost twenty years ago when I read her book <em>Feminism for Everybody <\/em>(Hooks, 2000)<em>.<\/em>&nbsp; I was fascinated by her keen intelligence and sincerity on how the patriarchal culture detains men from knowing themselves and being in touch with their feelings.&nbsp; This impressionable book and Hook\u2019s verbiage helped me find the language not only to guide my husband to express his emotion.&nbsp; It ignited a fire in me to raise my two sons with empathy and the knowledge to retain the fundamental truth of who they are in a world where social structures and practices of male dominance are taught to oppress and monopolize.&nbsp; It took me years to find my feminine identity with patriarchy swirling in my personal and professional life.&nbsp; Authors like Bell Hooks provide a pathway for amateur scribblers like myself to feel like I matter and my ideas are worthy of being written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gloria Jean Watkins, who uses the pen name Bell Hooks as an ode to her grandmother Bell Blair Hooks, demonstrates how to be a clear writer who is easy to understand.&nbsp; The way she writes is compelling, and as she pens on (p.13), &#8220;there are writers who write because we need to make sense of the world we live in; writing is a way to clarify, to interpret, to reinvent.&#8221;&nbsp; Yes,&nbsp;I could not agree more.&nbsp; I respect how Bell Hooks does not avoid difficult conversations.&nbsp; Writing has changed her and allows this dynamic dame to discover something new about herself.&nbsp; Hooks has taught me to focus on finding my identity through writing and using my words to break out of the shadow of myself. I like when she writes, &#8220;my granddaddy would say there is light in the darkness, you just have to find it&#8221; (p.3).&nbsp; Like Hooks, I, too, would write in my diary growing up.&nbsp; As she states, this record of confession brought me face to face with the shadow self, the one we spend a lifetime avoiding&#8221; (p.7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I read the chapter &#8220;writing from the darkness&#8221; and highlighted many of her sayings.\u00a0 The first was &#8220;It was though I lived in a constant state of siege\u201d &#8230; a process of unmasking, stripping the soul, making me feel naked and vulnerable.\u00a0 Even though the experience was cleansing and redemptive\u201d (p.7).\u00a0 She shares how writing was a &#8220;therapeutic process of retrospective self-examination and an engagement of critical self-reflection&#8221; (p.6).\u00a0\u00a0In short, this American author, professor, feminist, and social activist is about restoring people and transforming systems with her words.\u00a0 I am inspired to continue my journey in this Ph.D. program using the framework from my research and all the wonderful writers and critical thinkers I continue to read each semester.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first introduction to Bell Hooks was almost twenty years ago when I read her book Feminism for Everybody (Hooks, 2000).&nbsp; I was fascinated by her keen intelligence and sincerity on how the patriarchal culture detains men from knowing themselves and being in touch with their feelings.&nbsp; This impressionable book and Hook\u2019s verbiage helped me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":566,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}