The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949

Background Raised by atheist-lawyer and devout catholic Forced to take up professional careers; studied philosophy at  École Normale Supérieure Sartre and the scandals Involvement in political activity; Les Temps Modernes, 1945

The Second Sex Published in 1949, written over 14 months one of the earliest attempts to confront human history from a feminist perspective Deals with the ‘other’-izing of the woman Men as subject; women as object Divided into 2 parts – Facts & Myths, Lived Experience

Facts... Destiny – a woman’s physiology is not her destiny; she is not bound by her body History – through history, women have been represented as the other; as inferior; as capable of immanence The women is rooted to menstruation, childbirth and pregnancy- seen as ‘activities’, “no lofty affirmation of her existence – she submitted passively to her biological fate’ (all through history) Nomads, Early settlers, Classical Antiquity, Middle Ages, Eighteenth century

... And Myths “ever-lasting disappointment” of women The inferiority of the female in the collective unconscious reiterated in poetry, novels, myths, commonly held beliefs The Praying Mantis, the demon, the saintly mother, the evil stepmother, the muse, the goddess mother, the perverse virgin Genesis, Greek mythology, Chaucer, Shakespeare etc “Feminine devotion is demanded as a duty by Montherlant and Lawrence; less arrogant, Claudel, Breton and Stendhal admire it as a generous free choice – they wish for it without claiming to deserve it”

Lived Experience “One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman. No biological, psychological or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature; intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as feminine.” (p. 273)

The Formative Years Childhood – a state of equality between the sexes Adolescence- a period of “awaiting Man” The sexual initiation -  repercussions of the first of these experiences informs a woman's whole life The Lesbian – “Homosexuality leads to make-believe, disequilibrium, frustration, lies (...) becomes the source of rewarding experiences, in accordance with its manner of expression...”

Situations and Justification Wife, mother, entertainer – roles leading to immanence Character because of situation, not vice versa Women reinforce their own dependency; “woman enjoys that incomparable privilege; irresponsibility” The importance of economic independence; the need for “A Room of One’s Own” Rather, her character is a result of her situation. Her mediocrity, complacency, lack of accomplishment, laziness, passivity—all these qualities are the consequences of her subordination, not the cause.

Themes Immanence and Transcendence Nature and Nurture Production and Reproduction The Eternal Feminine The Other She uses the phrase “the eternal feminine” to describe all the terrifying processes of fertility and reproduction that arose from male discomfort with the fact of his birth and the inevitability of his death. As the author of human history, man has conflated woman with her womb. He has lumped all those mysterious processes of life and reminders of death, which both confuse and frighten him, under a single dismissive myth. De Beauvoir points out that just as there is no such thing as the “eternal masculine,” there is no such thing as “eternal feminine.” Or, to put it differently: there is no essence, only experience. All beings, de Beauvoir insists, have the right to define their own existences rather than labor under some vague notion of “femininity.”