as well as examples from her own life and other readings that demonstrate why she feels thatAll About Love is a necessary work for readers in this day and age.

In All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks is critical of American culture that creates a taboo around earnest discussions of love. In particular, she claims that there is a taboo around acknowledging a lack of love from one's parent(s)—it's extremely difficult to name this lack of love, especially if the parent(s) provided one or more dimensions of love but not all of the dimensions hooks names. She points out that "simply giving care does not mean we are loving." Crucially, she says, "One of the most important social myths we must debunk if we are to become a more loving culture is the one that teaches parents that abuse and neglect can coexist with love."

hooks identifies other biases against love in American culture that she has encountered while giving speaking engagements. In the introduction to the book, she says she has often run into an audience belief that "love is for the naive, the weak, the hopelessly romantic." She also points out that American society prizes romantic love above all other types of love, and that our taboo against discussing love in earnest prevents us from establishing a fully fledged, shared definition of love and examining where love may be lacking in our lives. These are her main projects in this book.