In the essay, “Feminist Politics Where We Stand”, Bell Hooks definition of feminism is “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” My understanding of this definition is that Hooks wants people to know that feminism is to advocate women’s rights and gain equality. Many people may not know what feminism or being a feminist is and come up with their own interpretation that is usually wrong. There are plenty of feminists who “hate” men and paint a bad picture for the “real” feminists who want to help women achieve and fight for their rights.

Before reading what the accurate definition of “feminism” is, I wasn’t completely too sure what it was and why it was created but I knew it had something to do with us as women. I now know a more in depth meaning of feminism. “It does mean that it would be naive and wrong minded for feminist thinkers to see the movement as simplistically being for women against men.”(bottom of page 8 of introduction). I believe that more individuals should learn more about feminism, why it was created, and why its so important for people to help and stand up for women’s rights. Hooks continues to state that in feminism, the real problem is sexism and she doesn’t want people think that men are the enemy because that is no way the case. “To understand feminism it implies one has to necessarily understand sexism”(Page 1) Hooks believes that in order to get a deeper grasp and understanding of feminism, sexism needs to be understood fairly well. Hooks also talks about how most individuals learn about feminism through social media from “women who are primarily committed to gender equality”.

The reading “Sex and Gender 101” helped me understand what the difference between sex and gender is because many people think that they are the same thing however, they both have their own significant definitions. Sex is based on the anatomy and physiology of a person including sex organs, external genitalia, sex hormones, and sex chromosomes. Gender refers to the cultural roles made by society that male and females are expected to follow based on their sex. Before this reading, I wasn’t aware that gender can be broken down into three different categories: Gender assignment, gender identity, and gender expression. The social norms or characteristics that males are “supposed” to follow would include being strong, messy, not emotional, tough, athletic, etc. Where as females are expected to be submissive, delicate, caretakers, emotional, romantic, etc.