1. Existentialism Simone de Beauvoir

2. Existentialism: de Beauvoir Why look at de Beauvoir? – Philosophy is dominated by men – Feminist philosophy is a 20th century development

3. De Beauvoir’s Biography – Both in January 1908 in Paris – Attended Catholic schools – Saw mother doing menial work in WW2 – Met Sartre at Catholic school in Sorbonne, France – Received her degrees in philosophy in 1929 – Very active in the French resistance as was Sartre – Spent her life writing long studies and novels – Important works: The Ethics of Ambiguity (1946);The Second Sex (1949) – She and Sartre were together 51 years; never married; never lived together – Always called herself an existentialist and never a feminist – Didn’t call herself a philosopher but Sartre thought she was a better philosopher than he

4. De Beauvoir’s and Feminist Philosophy (1)documented the oppression of women through (2)Literature (3)Science (4)Psychology (5)History (6)Anthropology

5. (2) developed a feminist theory of what it means to be an embodied thing and in particular, a gendered body

6. De Beauvoir argues that things such as embodiment and genderness are essential existential realities

7. Two significant claims as part of her theory of gender: 1.Gender is not a natural fact but an historical idea. 2.One is not born a woman, but rather becomes a woman.

8. De Beauvoir, “sex” and “gender” Sex refers only to the biological/physiological differences between men and women before these differences are interpreted and given significance within a cultural context.

9. Gender refers to the differences between the sexes as understood, enacted and practiced within the lives of individuals in a certain cultural setting or context.

10. To understand something is not only to understand its physical properties, but also the role it plays in people’s lives, How they create plans Relate to one another Their desires and attitudes How they view reality

11. De Beauvoir and Gender as a Cultural Construct Sex is not a cultural invention and to say so would obviously be absurd.

12. Gender is a cultural invention It is society or culture that determines what these biological differences signify and what they mean in terms of what a person is, how he or she should feel, react, plan, etc.

13. To understand what it is to have a body is also to understand what it is to have a gender. De Beauvoir therefore argues that one becomes a particular gender (woman or a man).

14. De Beauvoir on “Becoming a Woman” (1)Problems with this expression Who is it that becomes a woman / female? Is there some self that exists prior to a woman (female) and chooses it? In what sense does a person really become a woman (female) if we are labeled female (sex) at birth and not able really to choose anything?

15. (2) Gender (not sex) is active Gender is a choice Each of us chooses to live as a certain gender I “am” not a certain gender, but “become” that a gender. This is an ongoing process, Each moment I live that gender thru my choices and actions. It is not passive, or not something that “happens” to us. Gender is something we do, not something we are.

16. (3) Cultural Constraints on Gender We can’t just become any gender we want when we want. Therefore I can’t just choose to be a woman. Society will not allow this. This is a strong part of our situation We do not pre-exist our gender

17. We are born to a certain gender. We do not really have a choice to be a different gender. We cannot choose what genders to be at will. But we still choose our gender by living it in the precise ways that we do.

18. Existentialism: de Beauvoir (1) We need to re-think gender boundaries. There are aspects to the gender situation I can change. I can change what masculinity is through how I act. By acting in a way different than traditional genders are, I play a part in changing what gender is.

19. (2) Over time, by acting certain ways, we can change gender, and even create a new gender categories (e.g. femme, butch, etc) Trans-gender Trans-sexual Bi-sexual

20. (3) A big part of it is changing vocabulary. “masculine” and “feminine” need to be more fluid. And we can eventually change the significance of gender and sex in society.