Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Literary essays

HOOD FEMINISM

Mikki Kendall

Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

Mikki Kendall's HOOD FEMINISM is a searing, electrifying critique of today's feminist movement.

Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot--and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are feminist issues. All too often, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement when there is a distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others?

In her potent collection of essays, Mikki Kendall writes fiercely about the bigotry that has long powered white feminism and marginalized anyone outside its narrow parameters, and how the recent political climate suffers greatly from that ingrained bigotry and willing blindness. In varied and incisive essays, Kendall delves into how gun violence, hunger, education, housing, and more are all feminist issues, even when mainstream white feminism doesn't treat them as such, and she digs deep into how these issues disproportionately affect women, especially women of color and other women--such as disabled and trans women--in the margins.

In her essays "Of #FastTailedGirls and Freedom," "Pretty for a." and "Black Girls Don't Have Eating Disorders," Kendall explores sexuality, beauty standards, and body image, examining harmful myths and stereotypes, as well as the obstacles marginalized women face relating to everything from natural hair to #foodstagram. From there, Kendall goes into how women of color, especially Black women, are often lambasted for speaking out; they're labeled angry or toxic, which she explores in "The Fetishization of Fierce." Then there's "Reproductive Justice, Eugenics, and Maternal Morality" and "Parenting While Marginalized," in which Kendall examines how the mainstream feminist rhetoric around reproductive rights and child-rearing is aimed at the white cis abled middle class; it's deeply exclusionary to those who don't fall into that category. Kendall ends her collection with "Allies, Anger, and Accomplices," about how anger is necessary for change, and how "being an accomplice means that white feminism will devote its platforms and resources to supporting those in marginalized communities doing feminist work."

These are only a few in Kendall's electrifying collection, but all 17 of her essays embody Kendall's unique brand of gender justice, which emerged from her upbringing in Chicago, raised by women like her grandmother.

Mikki Kendall is a writer, diversity consultant, and feminist who talks a lot about intersectionality, policing, gender, sexual assault, and other current events. She has written for The Guardian, Ebony, Essence, Publishers Weekly, Global Comment, Salon, xoJane, and other online markets. She is also an accomplished speaker, frequently speaking on race, feminism, and social media. On Twitter, she has over 113,000 followers, giving her a reach of 36 million impressions per month, and her platform continues to grow.

Available products
Book Published 2020-02-25 by Viking

Comments

My wish is that every white woman who calls herself a feminist (as I do) will read this book in a state of hushed and humble respect. Mikki Kendall is calling out white feminists here - and it's long overdue that we drop our defenses, listen to her arguments carefully, and then change our entire way of thinking and behaving. As Kendall explains in eloquent and searing simplicity, any feminism that focuses on inequality between men and women without addressing the inequalities BETWEEN women is not only useless, but actually harmful. In the growing public conversation about race, class, status, privilege, and power, this text is essential reading.

Hood Feminism paints a brutally candid and unobstructed portrait of mainstream white feminism: a narrow movement that disregards the needs of the overwhelming majority of women. In the storied tradition of Black feminism stretching back to Maria Stewart, Kendall persuasively contends that women's basic needs are feminist issues. The fights against hunger, homelessness, poverty, health disparities, poor schools, homophobia, transphobia, and domestic violence are feminist fights. Kendall offers a feminism rooted in the livelihood of everyday women Read more...

This book is an act of fierce love and advocacy, and it is urgently necessary.

Mikki Kendall appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to discuss HOOD FEMINISM. During the interview, Trevor Noah called the book "one of the most interesting books I've read on feminism in a long time." Read more...

Mikki Kendall tells it like it is, and this is why she has long been a must-read writer for me: incisive, clear-eyed, and rightly willing to challenge readers when necessary. Her exploration of how feminists' fight for liberation has too often left poor people, Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color behind is critical reading for anyone who is or wants to be involved in work addressing complex and longstanding inequalities.

UK: Bloomsbury Ungarn: Pioneer Japan: DU Books Korea: Booksea Brasilien: Rua do Sabao Spanien: Capitan Swing

Hood Feminism is a critical feminist text that interrogates the failings of the mainstream feminist movement and gives us the necessary expertise of Black women. Kendall skillfully illuminates the many intersections of identity and shows us the beauty and power of anger.

Kendall manages to draw a clear picture of what true intersectional feminism looks like. This hard-hitting guide delivers crucial insights for those looking to build a more inclusive movement.

HOOD FEMINISM has now spent 53 weeks on the Indie Bestseller listmore than a year!

Mikki's book is a rousing call to action for today's feminists. This book armed me with hard facts and compelling arguments that I can bring to this all-important fight. Hood Feminism should be required reading for everyone.

Kendall is a highly knowledgeable and inspiring guide, and she effectively builds on the work of black women who have, for ages, been working to better the lives of themselves and their communities. This book is an authentic look, from the perspective of a black feminist, at the ways mainstream feminism must be overhauled, from the personal to the policy level, and a demand that its practitioners do better. A much-needed addition to feminist discourse.

Every white lady should have this book assigned to them before they can talk about feminism in the same way that every human should have to work in the service industry for a year before they can talk about the economy. Ain't nothing but truth in these words."