Three lovely bits from a recent conversation with bell hooks and Emma Watson in Paper Mag:
[bell] hooks: …I have an overall obsession in my life with beauty. I’m always wanting to surround myself with the kind of beauty that uplifts you, that runs counter to some of the stereotypes of feminist women.
[Emma] Watson: Yes, yes. In Feminism is for Everybody I found a reminder of just what you were saying, “To critique sexist images without offering alternatives is an incomplete intervention. Critique in and of itself does not lead to change.”
hooks: I was thinking about what you were saying earlier — that I am funny. A lot of people think I am, but most people don’t. [Laughs] I was telling you that when we first met. That’s a pretty big stereotype about feminists, that we’re not fun, that we don’t have a sense of humor and that everything is so serious and politically correct. Humor is essential to working with difficult subjects: race, gender, class, sexuality. If you can’t laugh at yourself and be with others in laughter, you really cannot create meaningful social change.
Amanda Cellini 