bell hooks

Born Gloria Jean Watkins, bell hooks adopted her maternal great-grandmother's name as her pen name, deliberately lowercasing it to emphasize her work over her persona. This dedication to her message, rather than personal celebrity, set her apart in academic and activist circles. Not that we're complaining about a little humility, but it does make searching for her a bit of a keyboard chore. Still, you can't argue with a woman who named herself after her grandma. We're pretty sure that's in the Talmud somewhere.

Her extensive body of work challenged mainstream feminism for its exclusion of women of color and poverty, advocating for a more inclusive and intersectional approach. From "Ain't I a Woman?" to "Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center," hooks pushed for radical social change and critical thought, inspiring countless students and activists.

While her intellectual contributions were undeniably significant, her connection to the tribe remains, shall we say, theoretical. There's no indication she ever swapped a Christmas tree for a menorah, or even sampled a latke. Her focus was on broader liberation, a noble cause indeed, but one that regrettably skirts the gefilte fish issue entirely. A shame, really; she might have had some interesting things to say about it.