The Second Sex!

This literary study will define the historical construction of submissive female gender roles in the domestic sphere in Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Existential Paralysis of Women” and in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Beauvoir’s article defines the suffering that women endure as servants in the home due to the overarching construction of submissive gender roles in the “masculine world.” This construction of gender role relies on male-based institutions that have educated women to believe that are inferior as an innate biological fact, yet these

Throughout history, women have constantly been objectified and forced into submission by the male dominated society. Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophical work, The Second Sex, echoes the intense oppression of women and reflects the first wave feminist movement. Her existentialist decoding of genders resulted in the idea of the Other, which explores the phenomenon of women forced into the role of an object, while men are the subject. In the second chapter, “The Girl”, Beauvoir further studies the idea of this oppression during one’s transition from a girl into a woman. Beauvoir states that no matter how much freedom and sense of self a girl holds, she is always forced into the role of the Other in society. Beauvoir 's idea of the Other held

The second-wave feminism has been the driving force behind the Women’s Liberation Movement, which is synonymous within the twenty years in the later part of the twentieth century, beginning in 1960 and ending in 1980. The movement, in the past, had an impact on various aspects of social life to men and women; and this impact is still showcased in areas including, but not limited to; women’s health, fertility trends, laws and legislations, personal believes and religious discussions, interpersonal relationships and family roles, feminist issues, and gender relations.

In the chapter titled “History” within the book called The Second Sex, Beauvoir talks about various of events and changes along with encounters that provided opportunities to seize greater freedom for women as a collectivity. For instance, when women were able to leave their homes and actually take an outside job, it allowed women a bit confused as to what roles she needed to partake in. Given that men were always gender-policing women to fit the ideal role, the women found it difficult to transitions and thus loose a sense of self along the way. De Beauvoir also states that gainful employment can stop the cycle of dependency on man and thus allow the two genders men and women to see each other’s as equals. It is within the book The Second Sex that De Beauvoir tries to understand the imbalance of gender roles to help her understand this she turns to the biology, psychoanalyst and the historical materialism. In her findings, she reveals that although there are some physical differences between women and men there is no proven facts that women cant do the same task as men in a workforce.

She states that `to pose woman is to pose then absolute Other' (821). `The other' is referred to women who are classified as being different to men even though both share a human body. Women are also not seen as `a subject, a fellow human being.'(821). This is caused by men who believe a myth of females through experiences of which Beauvoir states as feelings and thoughts, rather then the reality of women themselves. Men see women as what they think they see because of the way they feel about women. Men have opinions in ways of physical or knowledge of women. These opinions created are myths which men believe to be the true women. These men usually belong in the western patriarchal society. Men hold myths against women and "placed women beneath men and held them to be the property of men" (Guerrero). Being "placed beneath men" can show that women are treated unequally in a patriarchal society where they are not respected. This is the woman in a patriarch world.

Crenshaw and De Beauvoir are both feminists who are writing about the period of the second-wave feminism. However, their conceptions about the kind of discrimination faced by women in the society differ. This essay will examine De Beauvoir’s and Crenshaw’s viewpoints toward the discrimination faced by women, in particular, Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, and De Beauvoir’s idea of women. I shall argue that both of their conceptions show that the second-wave feminism is exclusive. However, if Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality is adopted as the framework to analyze discrimination that is faced by women in the future, feminism will be more encompassing and beneficial in formulating solutions that will help women fight for their rights

The historical evolution of feminism is reflected in the content of Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and Glaspell's Trifles. The connection of these text shows in greater detail the impacts on overlooked harassment, oppressing women by discriminating aganist them, oppressing them fundamentally and physically, causing a lack of identity among women. The diverse and complex theme of feminism and oppression throughout history is shown in all three text yet takes place in different geographic locations and time periods. A worldwide issue such as oppressing of women has been over looked for many centuries, which is why we still continue to see this problem arise. Imagine not beginning able to be the woman you were born to be, instead your defined as an “other” or property of your husband.

Drawing heavily on de Beauvoir (1953) she highlights the constraints placed upon women by their reproductive biology; that menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth are not only detrimental to her physical strength and health but also confine her to the ‘mere reproduction of life’. This stands in contrast to man, who is free to assert his

Simone De Beauvoir in The Second Sex suggests that to resolve the tension between bad faith and authenticity, people must regard women as subjects and not objects. They must also collectively fight against the idea of womanhood in order to remain authentic to themselves.

The question arises when this ‘why’ will be end. I hope the answer lie in the fact that once the age of revolution will come when women will going to reciprocate all the pains that is applied by any person in the society. Writing about women without the present of Semion De Beauvoir will make the dissertation incomplete as The Second Sex is one of the land mark book which comments on the status of women as the Second Sex chronicles De Beauvoir’s effort to locate the source of these profoundly imbalanced gender roles. In book I, entitled “facts and myths” she asks how “human” come to occupy a subordinate position in society. To answer this question- and to better understand her question – and to better understand her own identity – de Beauvoir first turns to biology, psychoanalysis, and historical materialism .These

Biologically speaking, De Beauvoir notes that the sexes are defined in opposition to each other; for example, man is not woman and woman is not man. Their differences are, however, unidentifiable at the most basic of cellular levels. Therefore, the main differentiation of the two genders is demonstrated through sexuality. De Beauvoir goes on to argue that woman’s passive role in procreation reflects her passive role in society, and that society trains women to become subjugated from the very day of their birth. Further, despite the two sexes’ cooperative role in creating new members of the species, men are regarded as those who provide “the stimuli needed for evoking new life” (13) and women who simply enable the new life “to become lodged in a stable organism.” (13) This reinforces stereotypical notions of the virile male and the passive female, notions that are reflected in society as woman takes a

The following text comes from Simone de Beauvoir called “The Second Sex,” which discusses the ideas of the feminist

De Beauvoir’s “Woman as Other” lays out an elaborate argument on gender inequality; using the term “other” to establish woman’s alternate, lesser important role throughout her work, the author dissects and examines from its origin the female’s secondary position in society in contrast to man. Indeed, from the beginning of recorded history, the duality of man, by definition, positions woman at the opposing end of the spectrum in relation to her male counterpart. Even by today’s modern and accepting standards, the female suffers under the brand of being the sub-standard half of the duality equation; compared to her male opponent, women are paid lower wages, have fewer and limited expression of rights, achieve lower

Therefore, it is evident that literary techniques are utilised to exploit the Beauvoirian idea of women “denying [their] feminine weakness” in order to justify their strength, while the “militant male... she wish[es] to be” however, Marlene accepts femininity and only wears a skirt to work.

Lastly, “femininity” refers to behavioural activities or interests that are assigned to the female sex, such as cleaning and cooking (Beauvoir, 617). Although many critics have read her text and become confused due to her stylistic choice to fuse her voice with the voices of famous men, it can be said that the text ultimately leads the reader to begin to question what society sees as a woman (Zerilli, 1-2). Despite Beauvoir’s The Second Sex appearing to recognize the oppression of women throughout the world without giving an actual solution, I will argue that Beauvoir’s evaluation of each “natural” aspect of female oppression allows readers to recognize that the only thing holding themselves back as a woman is society’s unnatural definition of their body, relation to men, and personal freedoms. Of course, when it comes to one's freedom, it is difficult to obtain when your body feels like a