Sgt. Pepper, hooks

In Bell Hooks's essay, "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance," the author discusses the way we are trained to see other people. He focuses specifically on the way white males are trained to see Black and minority females. Hegemony does seem to be suggesting an end to racism as many advertisements and media today features women of minority. However, as the sources are more carefully examined, one will find that racism is being promoted now more than ever. "They [white boys] believe their desire for contact repreesents a progressive change in white attitudes toward non-whites" (hooks 369). A common theme that promotes it is portraying colored women as exotic, animalistic, and as a thrill. By portraying them in this way, it is suggesting they are less than human. Rather than deserving the same respect society tells men to use with white females (which is still a struggle), the same respect is not even a suggestion for minority females. One clear example of this Virginia Slims ad I found online (see above this post). While it's a little dated, it provides a perfect example of the dehumanization of women. In this ad for cigarettes, a female of color is clearly being shown as animalistic. She wears a leopard print outfit. Also, her head is pointed down and her body language suggests her submissive status. But if that doesn't do it for you, her dehumanization could not be more clear in the ad's text, which reads: "Tame and Timid? That Goes Against My Instincts." This text is obviously referring to the qualities of an animal, thus it is saying she is an animal. She is less than human, and it is OK for men (and women) to treat her that way. Hooks ends his essay with a notion that fear is getting in the way of any kind of reform. With hegemony drilling these thoughts of racism into people's heads, it is not just promoting racism, but it is promoting fear to challenge it.