One of the most provocative and direct voices in feminist theory, bell hooks explores her Southern black origins where the daring act of ‘talking back’ meant speaking as an equal to an authority figure and–especially as a young girl–often invited punishment. hooks investigates the space between public and private, secrecy and exposure and how deeply connected this split is to ongoing practices of domination in our daily lives. As she examines the nature of how black women's voices fail to be acknowledged as significant, she marks that their struggle is not to emerge from silence into speech, but a struggle for recognition and to actually be heard.