Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot

by Mikki Kendall

'It is absolutely brilliant, I think every woman should read it' PANDORA SYKES, THE HIGH LOW
‘My wish is that every white woman who calls herself a feminist will read this book in a state of hushed and humble respect ... Essential reading' ELIZABETH GILBERT

I'm a feminist. Mostly.
I'm an asshole. Mostly.

All too often the focus of mainstream feminism is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few.


Meeting basic needs is a feminist issue. Food insecurity, the living wage and access to education are feminist issues. The fight against racism, ableism and transmisogyny are all feminist issues.


White feminists often fail to see how race, class, sexual orientation and disability intersect with gender. How can feminists stand in solidarity as a movement when there is a distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?


Insightful, incendiary and ultimately hopeful, Hood Feminism is both an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux and also clear-eyed assessment of how to save it.

• ISBN10: 1526622408
• ISBN13: 9781526622402
• Publish Date: 25 February 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 February 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[merryfaith]

4.5. I took a while to read this as I had to sit with some chapters for a bit. Great book on the need for intersectionality in feminism, because a whole lot of the mainstream movement isn't antiracist. Read this ready to self-examine.

[empressbrooke]

This is a good overview of the need for feminism to be intersectional, although each essay could easily be its own full length book. At times there were vague mentions of what seemed like highly specific incidents that sent me scrambling for Google in a "who did what now?" search to give necessary context. The very short essay on healthcare tried to do entirely do too much (covering maternal mortality rates for black mothers and rights to access healthcare for transmen and women and disability rights and access to abortion all in about 15 pages). Essays that stand out as the most effective include chapters on housing and hunger being feminist issues. I was the most engaged when the author drew on her own experiences (or experiences of people she knew), because it started veering into sociology textbook territory at other times. If I was recommending this to someone, I would tell them that it is a good starting point and that they should also seek out books that dive more specifically into the topics covered here.