Essay on Bell Hooks Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance

be anyone in the minority. Given her background, the Other is characterized by those in the African-American society. However, it is not limited to American society. The Other represent all those who are given a raw deal in society. They are the so-called blacks, the Hispanics, the marginalized and anyone else who is considered “different” from the mainstream society. Another contention is that the Other is not only different, but it is also considered inferior to those who deem at as the Other. This, then, applies the role of Other to not only those aforementioned but also to women, members of relatively smaller religions and the young. This would be disturbing, both because it rings true and it is taboo in society, in the context of the article.

Hooks also discusses about the “commodification” of the Other. She says that those who are different and exotic add “spice” to the otherwise bland and weak taste of mainstream society. Their ways and customs are first seen as arcane and incomprehensible, but slowly make their way into the practices in the mainstream, either, unconsciously, in the form of modified practice or, consciously, in the form of alternative entertainment. This is clear in society in the fact that “[the] black body that was most ‘desired’ for its labor in slavery and it is this body that is most represented in contemporary popular culture as the body to be watched, imitated, desired, [and] possessed.”

All in all, Hooks’ views, as expressed in “Eating the Other”, is the extremist view of the mainstream’s need to exert dominance over those that they deem different, and by association, inferior. The Other, for Hooks, is

the common African-American who endures White America’s arrogance. They are repeatedly faced by being reduced into instruments that make society “more exciting” for those in the mainstream, something fun but not necessarily alive.