bell hooks Female Quotations

Reviewing the literature on love I noticed how few writers, male or female, talk about the impact of patriarchy, the way in which male domination of women and children stands in the ways of love.

as females in a patriarchal culture, we were not slaves of love; most of us were and are slaves of longing-- yearning for a master who will set us free and claim us because we cannot claim ourselves

The one person who will never leave us, whom we will never lose, is ourself. Learning to love our female selves is where our search for love must begin.