Humanities Homework Help

Bell hooks (nee Gloria Jean Watkins) is a professor and social activist who has written about feminism and popular culture.  For this assignment you will watch bell hooks’ views on Cultural Criticism and Transformation in the video and read the accompanying extended transcript (Links to an external site.). (Note: there are several very difficult subjects discussed, and visual examples from movies are used to support these examples; more examples are used to further explore each of these themes throughout the remainder of this video.)

Your essay should include some discussion of the following questions:

Do you agree or disagree with hooks’ views?  Support your position.

Does mass media promote images of equality by leveling racial, ethnic, and gender differences or do they promote inequality through exclusion and exaggeration of difference?

Does mass media reinforce the viewpoints of white, male, corporate culture or does mass allow for the authentic expression of racial, ethnic, and sexual identity?  Give examples to support your position

Reference

ChallengingMedia. (2006, October 3). bell hooks: Cultural criticism & transformation [Video]. YouTube.