Week 11: Love as an Action and Not a Feeling

On page 13 of Bell Hooks’ writing, she states, "we are often taught we have no control over our “feelings”. Yet most of us…accept that our actions have consequences”. Hooks also mentions that love should be thought about as an action rather than a feeling in order to assume accountability. I understand what the author is trying to impose on the readers, that love shouldn’t be handled haphazardly and that we should care for one another in a meaningful way because to love in a way that benefits everybody would make the world a better place. Love shouldn’t be used as a weapon or as a means to harm other people/gain things for your own selfish benefit. I agree with all of these statements.

However, I don’t believe it possible to fully treat love as an action, because love really is a feeling. It is impossible to force a person to wholly and truly love something that they don’t. They may pretend to, but deep in their heart, they can’t change how they feel. In theory, it sounds nice to label love as an action, but when it comes to real-life scenarios love is a raw emotion that can’t be controlled because it comes with other emotions. It’s not in a singular form because you can’t feel emotions in singularity most of the time. And so, what happens in the context of experiencing these emotions is not an action but better described rather as a reaction.