Irony of Wealth
bell hooks and her friend K were exceptionally wealthy individuals, especially for black women at the time. They had jobs with high salaries and their wealth and financial stability was evident in the book when they purchased first-class seats on an airplane. This wealth should have given them more power and respect in society, as we usually see; people with more money tend to be better off in social circumstances. However, this wealth and affluence was nothing in the face of racism and sexism and bell hooks and K were forced to move out of their seats.
Irony of Equality
The entire text circles around the idea of both campaigns for equality, one fighting for the equality for women and one fighting for the equality for minorities. As each movement fights to support their cause, they often put down and ignore the same people who are fighting for their own rights. For example, while women are often praised for their role in fighting for gender equality, when it came to the battle to end racism, they were hardly included. The irony of excluding certain groups of people while fighting against discrimination is extremely evident in the text and is one of the reasons why bell hooks is so unique.
Irony of Education
bell hooks is an extremely well-educated woman who went through many levels of higher education. Despite growing up in the South, where discriminatory attitudes were more prevalent, bell hooks was able to attend numerous universities. She studied at the University of Wisconsin, the University of California at Santa Cruz, and later at the highly prestigious University of Stanford. This feat is remarkable and made her stand out. Despite this, she was put down in society, harassed, and treated as if she were a lesser being and less intelligent. Her remarkable education, which should have been proof of her intelligence and achievement, was not able to help her.
Irony of Lowercase Name
In her text, bell hooks purposely uses her authorial name in a lowercase fashion to symbolize the decreased importance she has in society, as well as other members of her race and gender. By using this lowercase, she is supposed to take attention away from herself and recreate what society has done to her by taking away importance from her, so much so that her name does not even need to be capitalized. However, bell hook's decision to have a lower case name actually has the opposite effect and draws more importance to her. It makes her unique and allows the reader to appreciate the work of the author who fought for her rights, giving importance to her.
Irony of Voice
In her society, bell hooks is clearly underrepresented and it is difficult for her voice to be heard and her ideas to be spread. Due to the racial discrimination against blacks at the time as well as sexual discrimination against women, black women like bell hooks had little to no chance of having their voice heard in society. Whether not being allowed to run for office, participate in political discussions, or even congregate in certain areas, all these inequalities meant black women kept their voice to themselves. However, bell hooks was able to create a text of her 23 essays, effectively conveying her tone and voice and allowing her inner thoughts and ideas to be spread. By creating this text, she was able to spread her voice much more than the average person, much less a black woman.
