Context
The Second Sex (1949) owes its structure to Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception (1945) and Beauvoir applies phenomenological analysis to the general problem and to the arguments of the individual sections of her book. Merleau-Ponty's approach to phenomenology is followed by Beauvoir in several ways:
- She adopts an empirical approach to experience when detailing the historical conditions of women's subordination. The traumas of feminine sexual initiation versus that of boys is also treated empirically.
- Beauvoir also embraces an idealist alternative to the realist approach. Her application of Marxist economic analysis of sexual differences is, in her opinion, a determining factor in the subordination of women. She also uses psychoanalysis in her intellectual differentiation between the sexes.
In another procedure the authoress deals with the problem she calls:
"the prejudice that the objective world exists as a ready-made and fully present reality."
The authoress presents evidence from archaeological artifacts and scientific research in several sections of her book. For example she cites the scientific investigation of one-celled animals' multiplication. She also uses narratives based on different types of experience: perception, thought, memory, imagination, emotion, desire, volition, bodily awareness, embodied action and social activity.
In a departure from the Existencialism of Sartre she expands the concept of intentionality by noting the double viewpoint of the 'individual' and the 'Other'. Contrary to Sartre's view of the Other as Hell, Beauvoir views the Other as necessary for her freedom. For Sartre the Other exists in opposition to the Self; for Beauvoir Self and Other are reciprocal. She proposes that this is the difference between the sexes and the path to their reconciliation.
Beauvoir also borrows the concept of reciprocity from Husserl. This refers to the implication of both the reader and the writer. It means that both Self and Other are subjects. Beauvoir expresses it as:
"true alterity is that of a consciousness separate from mine and identical with mine."
The reader of her book is not an alienated Other, but a participant and creator.
Sartre had an obvious influence on Beauvoir as the two cooperated for half a century. Their emphasis was on the public role of the citizen, since existentialist thinking considered that in a godless world moral values depended on the individual. Beauvoir interpreted this as a call to bond with others and incite action by transcending the inwardness of the self.
Beavoir broke with Sartre's existencialism through her commitment to the individual cooperating with others as the basis for ethical actions for freedom. Passivity is considered bad faith.
Summary
The Second Sex is structured in two volumes: Facts and Myth, an attempt to deconstruct cultural stereotypes, and Lived Experience, an explanation on how women actually experience sexism daily. Volume 1 is divided into three sections; into four in Volume 2. The parts are also subdivided into chapters and the whole is enclosed in an Introduction and a Conclusion.
The opening question of the book in the Introduction is "What is a woman?" and the authoress answers by affirming that man has always been One and woman the Other, and women are complicit in this hierarchy. The book aims to analyse how women became the Other and its consequences from both a man and a woman's viewpoint.
The authoress considers that the binary opposition man/woman is a linguistic convenience, not a social reality. Both are individuals, but woman is a sexual object, a body for reproduction, while man can be whatever he wants to be.
In the first Volume Beauvoir criticises biology, psychoanalysis, and historical materialism as flawed theories for the explanation of the female condition, because none gets to the bottom of the situation of women. Biology cannot explain human relationships; psychoanalysis does not address the question of a person's motivation; historical materialism focuses too strictly on economic considerations to see how sexuality and other factors also influence men's treatment of women.
The second part of Volume 1 describes how women were treated historically in society. Primitive societies regarded them as inferior to men. Ownership of private property then oppressed women by treating them as property. Religion also played a part by giving men the moral excuse to limit women. Chapter five recognises improvements in women's condition by granting them more rights. However, Beauvoir concludes that in reproduction, sexuality and labour, women still suffer the traditional oppressions.
In the final part of Volume 1 Beauvoir describes the ways myths and literature depict women. They were first thought of as idols representing Nature and motherhood. However, even in this idolatry women were feared and objectified by men. She also analyses works which mythologised women negatively. She ends this section by considering how these myths and fictions affect women in their everyday lives. Beauvoir concludes that woman will become fully human only:
"when woman's infinite servitude is broken, when she lives for herself and by herself."
In the second Volume Beauvoir discusses women's experience of living. She reviews the formative years of a woman: childhood into adolescence and her sexual initiation which is more traumatic than a man's. She also examines homosexuality affecting women who reject the masculine sphere.
In the second part of Volume 2 she considers the different societal roles a woman plays. Her main argument is that women are limited in every role and their coping strategies have led them to be more socially inferior. The third section of the volume discusses how women react devoting themselves to their lovers or to mysticism.
She concludes her book arguing that equality would be beneficial for both genders, but that it has not yet been achieved. She notes that the traditional values of marriage, reproduction and femininity are still challenges to sexual equality. Her final thought expresses optimism as to future equal opportunities.
Themes
Immanence / Transcendence
Beauvoir uses the word immanence as a description of the sphere historically allocated to women. It is a limited space where women are expected to be interior, passive and static. She uses the word transcendence to designate the opposite lot of the male, expected to be active, creative, productive and outward looking. She argues that every individual should be allowed the interplay of both forces, but man has traditionally denied woman the transcendent role. As the authoress sees it women have been forced to accept a narrow, repetitive part. The only escape is through man, which leads nowhere.
Nature vs. Nurture
It is Beauvoir's belief that the inferiority of women in society is not a consequence of natural differences, but of upbringing. In short, discrimination is learned. This applies to men learning their power, but also to women learning to be passive and immanent. Beauvoir believes that boys and girls are born equal and educated differently. Since at birth they are equal, she thinks that it is possible to return to this equality in adulthood.
Production versus Reproduction
According to Beauvoir one of the main problems for females is the reconciliation of reproduction and productivity. Her productivity capacity enables her to participate in the economy of society. The authoress considers that reproduction and production do not exclude each other and a woman is both a worker and a womb.
Beauvoir thinks that women have been restricted to their reproductive function since they have been burdened by bearing children and rearing them alone. If women are to enter the workplace as an equal, the nuclear family needs to be reconfigured. This means lifting the stigmas against unwed mothers and allowing abortion.
Other and Self
This binary concept is what defines men and women's social identity, according to Beauvoir. Men assumed the identity of the neutral and positive force and women are defined as the opposite, the "Other". As men self-identify as essential, central and independent, so women are construed as inessential and dependent.
However, the authoress emphasises that women adopt this distinction and accept this place as inessential in society. She insists that it is up to women to change this label imposed by men.
Self-alienation
For Beauvoir alienation involves displacing your identity to correspond to something else in the world, instead of identifying with your own being. She points out that Freud thinks this happens through the penis which men view as something outside of themselves. Young girls may identify with their dolls. Older women are alienated in their bodies which society views as objects. Some women self-alienate in their lovers or religion. In general alienation is more destructive in women because they they are given a passive role in society.
Bad Faith
In Existentialist philosophy bad faith refers to a refusal to face reality. Beauvoir uses the concept to explain some of the contradictions women face in society, provoked by the painful realities they come up against. For example the independent woman has to believe that she can reconcile autonomy and femininity. The mother must believe that she is still needed when her children become independent. As this involves constant self-deception the authoress thinks that it is one effect of society's imposition of limitations on women.
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