A critique of Simone de Beauvoir's concepts of "transcendence" and "immanence" in her work "The Second Sex".
Analytical Essay # 130042 |
1,500 words (
approx. 6 pages ) |
4 sources |
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Abstract
The paper describes how Simone de Beauvoir, in her groundbreaking mid-20th century work "The Second Sex", presents the concepts of "transcendence" and "immanence" as integral features of her theoretical analysis of the structures of patriarchal oppression in Western society. This paper explores these concepts in terms of Beauvoir's feminist analysis. The paper argues that these concepts cannot be considered to be "gender biased" if "bias" is understood in terms of a negative or unsubstantiated scholarship. Rather, the paper 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
"Simone de Beauvoir, in her groundbreaking mid-20th century work "The Second Sex", presented the concepts of "transcendence" and "immanence" as integral features of her theoretical analysis of the structures of patriarchal oppression in Western society. This essay will explore these concepts in terms of Beauvoir's feminist analysis. In this context, it will be argued that these concepts cannot be considered to be "gender biased" if "bias" is understood in terms of a negative or unsubstantiated scholarship. Rather, as will be argued, Beauvoir's use of these concepts to describe..."
Tags:philosophy, feminism, beauvoir
A look at the work of Simone de Beauvoir in respect to feminism, self- empowerment and psychology.
Essay # 37221 |
2,650 words (
approx. 10.6 pages ) |
10 sources |
2002
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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.
Writing of Simone de Beauvoir.
A literary review of Simone de Beauvoir's works including 'Memoires of a Dutiful Daughter', 'The Second Sex' and 'A Very Gentle Death'.
Essay # 29701 |
2,124 words (
approx. 8.5 pages ) |
6 sources |
MLA | 2002
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$ 39.95
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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 criticized 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."
Tags:feminism, french, levinas, moi, toril, patriarchal
Discusses and compares how French philosopher, Michel Foucalt and French feminist author, Simond de Beauvoir viewed sexuality and the politicization of the body.
Comparison Essay # 31549 |
1,150 words (
approx. 4.6 pages ) |
3 sources |
2002
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$ 23.95
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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.
An analysis of Beauvoir's "The Second Sex: Modern Critical Views on Feminism, Sexuality, Women in the Workforce, and the Institution of Marriage."
Analytical Essay # 135553 |
2,500 words (
approx. 10 pages ) |
20 sources |
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The paper explores how Bauer, Hawthorne, and Heinaman offer insightful and crucially modern views on the stability of a female identity between same-sex views from a patriarchal and matriarchal diversity in "The Second Sex". The paper suggessts that there could be more research into the problem of patriarchal roles in the sexism of the "lesbian issue" (lesbian affection as a tool for misogynist sexuality), which further isolates and objectifies women.
Tags:beauvoir, women, second
Compares French philosophers' ideas on being, ethics, subjectivity, humanism, freedom, responsibility, metaphysics, Marxism.
Analytical Essay # 11449 |
3,825 words (
approx. 15.3 pages ) |
2 sources |
1996
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"The purpose of this research is to examine Sartre's Existentialism and Human Emotions and de Beauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity. The plan of the research will be to set forth the general pattern of ideas in each work, and then to compare and contrast the means by which the ideas emerge.
The pattern of ideas in Existentialism and Human Emotions is an elaboration of existentialist thought, as both protest against previous modes of philosophical discussion and meditation on the human condition in the modern period. Sartre's enterprise is to describe in objective terms the philosophical platform of intensely subjective human ontology, or conception of the nature of human being-ness or reality, that existentialism proposes. He then develops an existential interpretation of such being-ness around the familiar subjects of human concern: freedom and responsibility, the ..."
An examination of Simone de Beauvoir's claim of feminine inequality.
Essay # 73574 |
678 words (
approx. 2.7 pages ) |
1 source |
MLA | 2004
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$ 14.95
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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."
Tags:Simone, de, Beauvoir, feminism
This paper discusses the book 'The Ethics of Ambiguity' by Simone De Beauvoir
Book Review # 106189 |
1,361 words (
approx. 5.4 pages ) |
1 source |
MLA | 2008
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$ 27.95
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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. "
Tags:adulthood, personality, mankind
In the article "Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory," Judith Butler (2003) uses as a starting point Simone de Beauvoir's famous statement that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman. De ...
Essay # 138033 |
1,500 words (
approx. 6 pages ) |
3 sources |
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In the article "Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory," Judith Butler (2003) uses as a starting point Simone de Beauvoir's famous statement that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman. De Beauvoir wrote this in her existentialist feminist book, The Second Sex, first published in 1952. In this book, de Beauvoir may be said to have initiated a trend which is still being developed by feminists, and particularly queer theorists. This trend is the questioning of precisely what it means to be a woman, or to be a man.
From the Paper
Judith Butler on Performative Acts and Gender Constitution In the article "Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory," Judith Butler (2003) uses as a starting point Simone de Beauvoir's famous statement that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman. De Beauvoir wrote this in her existentialist feminist book, The Second Sex, first published in 1952. In this book, de Beauvoir may be said to have initiated a trend which is still being developed by feminists, and particularly queer theorists. This trend is the questioning of precisely what it means to be a woman, or to be a man. This epistemological question underlies the entire debate about gender
Tags:gender, butler, theory
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.
Book Review # 102428 |
1,365 words (
approx. 5.5 pages ) |
3 sources |
MLA | 2008
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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? "
Tags:marginality, bourgeois, nazis, wisdom, existential