Abstract This essay considers the life and philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir. A brief overview of de Beauvoir's life is offered here, followed by a critical consideration of de Beauvoir's relations to existentialism.
Abstract This paper offers a detailed analysis of Beauvoir's writing with particular reference to 'Memoires of a Dutiful Daughter', 'The Second Sex' and 'A Very Gentle Death'. It examines the question of Beauvoir's complicity in a patriarchal society and draws on the criticism of Levinas, Judith Butler and Toril Moi. This paper discusses that much radical-seeming women's writing in modern France is produced under the uncriticized influence of patriarchal ideology.
From the Paper "Despite persistent attempts, Beauvoir's writing belies inclusion in any definition of "women's writing", if such a genre can be said to exist, beyond one that simply refers to writing that has been undertaken by a woman. Whilst her position as a woman informs her writing and occupies much of her thinking, she is not situating herself within a concept of "women's writing" and nor indeed can her readers pigeonhole her so easily. Her writing remains solely her own, whatever it may owe to her gender. Having said that, women dominate her texts, male-female relations dominate her philosophical outlook and her situation as a woman who is acutely aware of the role society expects her to perform clearly dominates her attitude towards life. Beauvoir struggled with the limitations of her position as a woman and when she was confronted with the disadvantages and prejudices facing women she vented her anger through her writing. Despite the obvious frustrations felt by Beauvoir, however, her critics have suggested that, far from attacking and undermining the patriarchal ideologies to which she objected, she in fact came to subscribe to them. In other words, she became as complicit through her writing as the women she herself criticised in society as a whole because she sought to radically overturn the perceptions of women but never lived up to the promise of her aim."
Discusses and compares how French philosopher, Michel Foucalt and French feminist author, Simond de Beauvoir viewed sexuality and the politicization of the body.
1,150 words (approx. 4.6 pages), 3 sources, 2002, $ 44.95
Abstract French philosopher Michel Foucault and French writer Simone de Beauvoir were both interested in how sexuality and the body had become the sites of power and politics in Western society. Both focused on the socially imposed structures that objectified sexual identity and gender differences. Foucault became interested in the language that was used by elites to objectify sexuality. Thus, he was more focused on the elites that appointed themselves as the arbiters of what was "normal" and "abnormal" in sexuality. De Beauvoir, meanwhile, was interested in how elites shaped sexuality to the disadvantage of women.
Abstract This paper addresses the life and works of the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, providing the reader with a summary of her accomplishments. A focus is provided to what Beauvoir has contributed to the field of modern psychology, where her involvement with Sarte shall be examined.
Abstract This paper offers a personal response to Simone de Beauvoir's discussion of a woman being perceived in mythic, instead of realistic terms.
From the Paper "Whatever else Simone de Beauvoir wants to accomplish in the essay "Woman Myth and Reality," she supplies a critique of the myth of the eternal feminine that vividly demonstrates how intractable and frustrating women's search for social and economic justice and equality continues to be. The problem as she explains it comes down to the fact that social control resides with men."
Abstract The writer of this article notes that to keep track of the many different "personality types" introduced by Simone De Beauvoir in her book, 'The Ethics of Ambiguity', is no small task. In chapter two, she introduces many of the personality types, and they do not at first paint a favorable picture of a person who has an opportunity to evolve from childhood to adulthood without a greater probability of becoming asocial as opposed to socially indoctrinated in a positive way. The writer points out that this somewhat dismal perspective is really explained - perhaps unwittingly - by De Beauvoir herself, as she explains in detail the plight of women as a continuation of childlike behavior-play at being an adult, because women are, like slaves, like the Mohammedan woman. These are, however, issues that De Beauvoir claims is in fact the ethics of ambiguity. This paper explores the different personalities and characteristics that De Beauvoir discusses in chapter two of her book.
Outline:
Mankind Begins in a State of Unhappiness
From the Paper "De Beauvoir further asserts that the dominating features of man's individual personality begin forming in childhood. Again, this is not an idea that would draw disagreement and argument. However, De Beauvoir discusses the reaction of a child, as though that child were a blank slate, to the world around him or her. However, De Beauvoir is asserting that these experiences are not experiences which tend to be deflected by a child's growth as much as the reflected in a child's growth. She paints mankind as beginning his existence in an unfortunate way, rather than a celebratory way, and assuming that the birth of a child is less than celebrated. The suggestion is that mankind is an unfortunate being, subjected to the circumstances of having been born at all. The choices man makes throughout his life - focusing on those that are poor choices - arise out of his childhood. "
This paper contrasts the importance of female friendships as described in J. Bauman's "Winter into Spring" and despaired of in "The Existential Paralysis of Women" by Simone de Beauvoir.
Abstract This paper explains that, although male dominated society excludes and exploits women, as portrayed in Ibsen's "A Doll House", the importance of friendship between women can overcome their marginality and restore women to the center of a husbanding society. The author compares Bauman's work to Beauvoir's and points out that Beauvoir writes about the exploitation of women in Western bourgeois society; whereas, Bauman recounts the trials of women in the void of that society smashed to pieces by the Nazis. The paper relates that Beauvoir sees the "eternal feminine" nature of a woman as shaped by the male dominated, patriarchal social structure even if women join together to off set the "masculine universe". The author thenstates that, in contrast, in Bauman's existential account of WWII, the friendship of five women who do "band together" to establish a "counter-universe" and survive is not only important but also vital.
From the Paper "The women in Mrs. Pietrzyk's room joined their common longings for life and love to link themselves back into the woman's world of hope, mystery, the sway of her body moving through the ebbs and tides, and the attainment of woman's wisdom. They did this with nothing but their hearts in a time of death. The rejected martyrdom and the paralysis mold. De Beauvoir says the lot of woman's life is passive waiting, but in truth nothing is more powerful: "I've been thinking now about this glorious future that I dreamed up last night. Will it come true? Shall I ever live a free, useful, happy life with someone I love and who loves me? "
Abstract This paper explores the concepts of transcendence and immanence in terms of Simone de Beauvoir's feminist analysis. In this context, it argues that Beauvoir's use of these concepts to describe how the lives of women and men in society are distinctly culturally gendered, is not only substantiated when considered in its own historical context, but also illuminates our understanding of gender roles in Western society in the early 21st century.
From the Paper "In conclusion, while it may justly be said that Beauvoir is "biased" in her use of the concepts of "transcendence" and "immanence" as descriptive models of the structures that support the oppression of women in everyday life, and in her objectives to subvert this oppression and promote the liberty of women, it cannot be said that her work display "gender bias" in this area. This term implies a level of "prejudice" that potentially undermines the value of a work given the particular interests or agenda of the author. Given the extraordinary care and attention of Beauvoir in her use of these concepts to reinforce her arguments with respect to the oppression of women in Western society, and the fact that these arguments have withstood the text of time and the critique of leading authorities and scholars over the past half-century, Beauvoir's use of "transcendence" and "immanence" cannot be represented as displaying "gender bias"."
Abstract This study will seek to uderstand how Beauvoir portrays existentialism thruogh her book A Woman Destroyed. By these means, we can see how the idea feminine self and other can be revealed in the text.
Abstract This paper takes up the argument that the origins of inequality are found within society. It uses examples of Simone De Beauvoir, W.E.B. DuBois, and James Baldwin as contributors to the understanding that inequalities do not have a natural or biological origin. It also includes a personal perspective on the origins of inequality and why they have been quite difficult for people to accept.
Abstract This paper outlines and compares the explanations Nancy Chodorow, a preeminent social scientist, and Simone De Beauvoir, feminist author and historian, offer for the subservient role of women in society.
From the Paper "In, ?A Room Of Her Own,? the feminist novelist and author, Virginia Woolf demonstrated that one of the reasons why women writers were in overwhelmingly low numbers than their male counterparts was because of the lack of economic opportunity. (Woolf, 1991) Victorian perceptions also saddled women with the responsibilities of motherhood and domesticity. This took away the opportunity for women (except for a few) to truly come into their own. Nancy Chodorow, a preeminent social scientist addresses the issue. (Chodorow, 1999) She does not get caught up in the traditional feminist or socialization mindset. Even psychologists, Chodorow avers, have not pursued the matter at a higher granularity. All can agree that, explicitly or implicitly, women have been subjugated. Chodorow addresses the problem using psychoanalysis."
A discussion on how the political and theoretical work of French feminists has been much misunderstood owing to the reader's failure to distinguish between their use of the terms "feminine", "woman" and "women".
Abstract This paper begins with an overview of the problems facing feminist theorists regarding terminology, such as the persistent risk of 'essentializing' woman's culturally specific situation into an immutable truth. It then discusses Kristeva's conception of the culturally and temporally specific woman in "Le Temps Des Femmes" (Women's Time) and compares it with Cixous' work in 'La Jeune Mee' (The Newly Born Woman) in terms of the theorists' similar approaches to the constructed, 'symbolic' woman. It then looks briefy at Simone Beauvoir's early work, "Le Deuxieme Sexe" (The Second Sex), adding her conception of ontology as a perpetual state of becoming and political analysis of woman's situation to the constructivist debate. Finally, it examines Irigaray's more post-structuralist work (including "Speculum" and "Ce Sexe Qui N'en Est Pas Un") in order to discuss the further complication of housing the material aspect of woman within langage.
From the Paper "Kristeva's thought on feminism provides a useful point of departure for a discussion of how a useful feminist understanding of the term woman, especially if taken from an "essentialist" point of view, is far from simple. In her 1982 essay Le temps des femmes , Kristeva postulates that the concept of "woman" desiring men and desired by them is created in the symbolic by the concept of desire founded on a lack with the penis as its major referent. She believes that the "meaning" of the woman object, the female body only exists in the symbolic and that any attempt to deny, or re-traverse the separation between this symbolic nature and something contained within the physical nature of "woman" merely magnifies this separation and perpetuates the myth which allows oppression to occur."
An analysis of Katherine Mansfield's story "Bliss" and how it represents some of the key feminist theories outlined in Simone De Beauvoir's work "The Second Sex".
Abstract This paper looks at Katherine Mansfield's work "Bliss" to identify if any of De Beauvoir's theories in "The Second Sex" can be drawn from it. It examines the relationship between Bertha and Miss Fulton and her husband Harry in "Bliss" in order to highlight some key theories of "The Second Sex" and demonstrates how "Bliss" can be viewed as a literary response to feminism which attempts to present women's oppression.
From the Paper "In the opening lines of Bliss, the reader is given an insight into Bertha's happy state and her analysis of her own blissful feelings: 'there is no way you can express it without being "drunk and disorderly." How idiotic civilisation is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?' This suggests that, as opposed to drunkenness and disorderliness, the accepted norms of behaviour for the female character are dignity and self-control. The reader is given the first clue as to a class prejudice, for Bertha is reflecting the viewpoint of her world and environment. It can therefore be assumed that she comes from a middle-class, bourgeois background."
Abstract This paper analyzes the novel 'Middle Passage' by Charles Johnson, using Simone de Beauvoir's book 'The Second Sex' as a basis of the analysis.
From the Paper "Just as Simone de Beauvoir describes women as "the other" vis-a-vis men within The Second Sex, Charles Johnson's character Rutherford Calhoun in Middle Passage (1990) also arguably represents "the other", in much the same way: in fact vis-a-vis everyone onboard the Republic. First, for example, Rutherford Calhoun is "other" because he is a stowaway, e.g., Rutherford is not legitimately onboard. Meanwhile, since Falcon (much like Melville's Ahab) is a sadistic egomaniac, his crew (of which Rutherford is not a legitimate member) is on the verge of rebellion against Falcon's tyrannical authority. The slaves onboard (among whom Rutherford is also not a member, and therefore, "other" as well) themselves are also planning to rebel against Falcon, and to take over the ship. "
Abstract In this article, the writer looks at a quote from the Bible, ensuring life to all people regardless of race, sexual orientation or gender. The writer then express her doubt about wheter it it is really as simple as interjecting a unisex pronoun into the Bible in order to diminish the misogynistic undertones. The writer discusses whether women are really seen as equal with the same status and opportunity as men and whether this new age of ideals of Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf promoting equality for women, stand up to the teachings of the Bible that seemingly contradict them. The writer notes that feminist theorists such as de Beauvoir and Woolf address this problem of men having power over women and the consented ownership that seems to stem from the interpretation of the Bible. The writer maintains that the feminist theory, devoted to breaking the literary cannon, illuminating the problems of being imprisoned within themselves, seem not to stand a chance against the word of God and the morals it imposes.
From the Paper "Reading the Bible from a feminist point of view does impose many biases towards the ideas in the Bible. Is it fair to say that because man was made in the image of God he is more worthy, or even that Bible suggests this? Solely based on a difference of interpretation, this can lead to problems and accepted oppression of women. Not only are these ideas found in the Bible, but in all religious texts and beliefs. The belief that men are more like God then women helps to assert the power they have and a divine right to have a God-like rule over women. Sadly, this is what media can do to people and shows how important these texts are and the power they have to poison the mindset of a modern day society. It is difficult to think that we have not moved that much further from the time of Simone de Beauvoir and Virginia Woolf, but the effects that religion has had leave many women not only accepting, but willing to take on the role of subservient, obedient wife. The imposition of these roles that forced many women into silence and seem to date back to the Bible, only strengthen the gap between the sexes because now, men do not want to take the role, but they have to in order to fulfill what the Bible has told them they have to be. How seriously we take the media in our lives, especially as something as controversial as religion, shape how we see each other and the parts we play and any deviation from them results in a need for punishment."
