Blog Post #1

     I for one really enjoyed bell hooks piece.  I connected with it a lot better than Virgina Woolf's speech.  "Talking Back" showed a different point of view for a black feminist.  I especially loved the beginning because i could link to it very easy.  I may not be black, but i did go to a mostly black church for almost all m life.  The women that i went to church with are the same women that bell hooks is describing.  If you talked back you got punished.  A lot of the ideas that she told about how women were mostly quiet and that the men ruled everything until they got into the church are true.  My church had a male pastor and he did a good job getting us fired up, but when a woman went up there and did her thang, the atmosphere was completely different.  Women have a way with words, there is no doubt about that.
     My absolute favorite line is on page 73 in the third paragraph.  "It was in that world of woman talk (the men were often silent, often absent) that was born in me the craving to speak,to have a voice, and not just any voice but one that could be identified as belonging to me."  I love this line because it shows me how much of an influence the women around her made on her.  And it makes me relaize how much the women around me has helped shape me.  The women of my church always encouraged me to speak.  Whether it was reciting a verse from the Bible that i memorized, singing a gospel song, or acting in the plays that they put together.  I ate it all up to. I did anything that was possible for me to open my mouth.  I have never been a shy girl except when it comes to expressing my thoughts to others because i have always had a fear of being pushed down.  i wonder if bell hooks thought of this too? And even if she did, she didn't let it hold her back.  And perhaps that is what i should be more like too.  I shouldn't be afraid to voice my opinion, but it will be needing some getting use to.  bell says on page 73 still "They were intended to silence me..." and that right there is the fear, that if we open our mouths to say something, there will be someone or something there to try to silence us.  But i believe that with enough support women can encourage other women to speak just as much, just as bell hooks has inspired me. 

Oprah is one of those women who has never been afraid to speak her mind and let her wisdom out! And now she's rich for speaking what she wants! Great life huh.