LOVE AS AN ACT OF WILL: Rethinking Connections with bell hooks in a Capitalist World 

This is the fifth lecture for the 2024 Fall session of ENGLISH 1110 for The Ohio State University, taught by PhD Candidate Peyton Del Toro.
This lecture delves into the ideas presented in the first two chapters of bell hooks’ All About Love, where she critiques the lack of a clear, universal definition of love in society. Hooks contends that love is often misunderstood or misrepresented, distorted by systems of domination-especially capitalism. Drawing on her insistence that love is not just a feeling, but an action rooted in care, commitment, and trust, this lecture will explore how capitalist culture undermines these values by turning love into a commodity.