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The Works of Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex and The Ethics Of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir
celeryradishpun's review
4.0
This was an on-taking. Long and dense and challenging, but shockingly thorough. This scholarly study is broken up into chapters about biology (outdated now, since it was written in the 40s, but still fascinating), the history of woman (should be a required read), the myths of the feminine, the rearing of girls, married and social lives, female exceptions, and thoughts on liberation.
Of course, Western society has made strides since The Second Sex was published, but this work is still incredibly relevant--upsettingly so. And we cannot change institutionalized sexism if we do not understand its history.
This is not intersectional feminist literature, but I still think it's worth reading.
Of course, Western society has made strides since The Second Sex was published, but this work is still incredibly relevant--upsettingly so. And we cannot change institutionalized sexism if we do not understand its history.
This is not intersectional feminist literature, but I still think it's worth reading.
jeeleongkoh's review
5.0
Finally finished reading Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex" last Monday. "One is not born, but rather becomes, woman," so translate Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier that resounding challenge. So many terrific things in de Beauvoir's analysis of how one becomes woman. Nietzsche is transmuted into the existentialist project of self-transcendence. Part One rejects the idea of female destiny, as promoted by biological, psychoanalytical or historical materialist views. Part Two recounts the history of women from the hunters-gatherers to the twentieth century, highlighting the theme of patriarchy and its need for woman to be the Other. Part Three tackles the sexist myths about women, elaborated by Montherlant, D. H. Lawrence, Paul Claudel and Breton, before looking at how Stendhal romances real women. All that in Volume I.
In Volume II Parts One and Two, de Beauvoir describes the lived experience of contemporary Western woman, from her childhood, through sexual initiation and marriage, to old age. The description cites psychiatric studies, literature, gossip and history, and integrates these citations in the heat of imagination. Every man should read at least the three central chapters: "The Married Woman," "The Mother" and "Social Life" to try to grasp the world from women's eyes. de Beauvoir contends that if women can be said to own a Character, that Character is entirely shaped by her historical subordination to men. Part Three examines three justifications that woman has employed to deny her powerlessness. She has been the Narcissist, the Woman in Love and the Mystic. In Part Four, the last part of the volume and book, de Beauvoir reflects on the growing economic independence of women in the twentieth century. She finds that encouraging but insufficient for true independence. The old myths, the old models for womanhood, and the old system have tenacious roots, and will not be removed easily. Contemporary women find themselves trying to be both independent (as defined by herself) and feminine (as defined by men). de Beauvoir's analysis still challenges, I think, women who think that they can be both, and men who think that they can have everything.
Some favorite passages:
Of D. H. Lawrence's belief in monogamous marriage: "There is only a quest for variety if one is interested in the uniqueness of beings: but phallic marriage is founded on generality."
Of Stendhal's love of women: "...while he is walking around Rome, a woman emerges at every turn of the page, by the regrets, desires, sadnesses, and joys women awakened in him, he came to know the nature of his own heart..."
Of the lack of a penis: "It is sure that the absence of a penis will play an important role in the little girl's destiny, even if she does not really envy those who possess one. The great privilege that the boy gets from it is that as he is bestowed with an organ that can be seen and held, he can at least partially alienate himself in it. He projects the mystery of his body and its dangers outside himself, which permits him to keep them at a distance: of course, he feels endangered through his penis, he fears castration, but this fear is easier to dominate than the pervasive overall fear the girl feels concerning her "insides," a fear that will often be perpetuated throughout her whole life as a woman. She has a deep concern about everything happening inside her, from the start, she is far more opaque to herself and more profoundly inhabited by the worrying mystery of life than the male. Because he recognizes himself in an alter ego, the little boy can boldly assume his subjectivity, the very object in which he alienates himself becomes a symbol of autonomy, transcendence, and power: he measures the size of his penis; he compares his urinary stream with that of his friends; later, erection and ejaculation will be sources of satisfaction and challenge. But a little girl cannot incarnate herself in any part of her own body....
Of the need for action: "Violence is the authentic test of every person's attachment to himself, his passions, and his own will; to radically reject it is to reject all objective truth, it is to isolate one's self in an abstract subjectivity; an anger or a revolt that does not exert itself in muscles remains imaginary."
Of the attitude of straights to gays: "The homosexual man inspires hostility from male and female heterosexuals as they both demand that man be a dominating subject; by contrast, both sexes spontaneously view lesbians with indulgence."
Of marriage: "But the principle of marriage is obscene because it transforms an exchange that should be founded on a spontaneous impulse into rights and duties; it gives bodies an instrumental, thus degrading, side by dooming them to grasp themselves in their generality; the husband is often frozen by the idea that he is accomplishing a duty, and the wife is ashamed to feel delivered to someone who exercises a right over her." and "Eroticism is a movement toward the Other, and this is its essential character; but within the couple, spouses become, for each other, the Same; no exchange is possible between them anymore, no giving, no conquest. If they remain lovers, it is often in embarrassment: they fee; the sexual act is no longer an intersubjective experience where each one goes beyond himself, but rather a kind of mutual masturbation."
Of the link between marriage and colonialism: "Marriage incites man to a capricious imperialism: the temptation to dominate is the most universal and the most irresistible there is; to turn over a child to his mother or to turn over a wife to her husband is to cultivate tyranny in the world; it is often not enough for the husband to be supported and admired, to give counsel and guidance; he gives orders, he plays the sovereign; all the resentments accumulated in his childhood, throughout his life, accumulated daily among other men whose existence vexes and wounds him, he unloads at home by unleashing his authority over his wife..."
Of the lack of genius: "How could women even have had genius when all possibility of accomplishing a work of genius--or just a work--was refused them? Old Europe formerly heaped its contempt on barbarian Americans for possessing neither artists nor writers. "Let us live before asking us to justify our existence," Jefferson wrote, in essence. Blacks give the same answers to racists who reproach them for not having produced a Whitman or Melville. Neither can the French proletariat invoke a name like Racine or Mallarme. The free woman is just being born; when she conquers herself, she will perhaps justify Rimbaud's prophecy: "Poets will be. When woman's infinite servitude is broken, when she lives for herself and by herself, man--abominable until now--giving her her freedom, she too will be a poet! Woman will find the unknown! Will her worlds of ideas differ from ours? She will find strange, unfathomable, repugnant, delicious things, we will take them, we will understand them."
In Volume II Parts One and Two, de Beauvoir describes the lived experience of contemporary Western woman, from her childhood, through sexual initiation and marriage, to old age. The description cites psychiatric studies, literature, gossip and history, and integrates these citations in the heat of imagination. Every man should read at least the three central chapters: "The Married Woman," "The Mother" and "Social Life" to try to grasp the world from women's eyes. de Beauvoir contends that if women can be said to own a Character, that Character is entirely shaped by her historical subordination to men. Part Three examines three justifications that woman has employed to deny her powerlessness. She has been the Narcissist, the Woman in Love and the Mystic. In Part Four, the last part of the volume and book, de Beauvoir reflects on the growing economic independence of women in the twentieth century. She finds that encouraging but insufficient for true independence. The old myths, the old models for womanhood, and the old system have tenacious roots, and will not be removed easily. Contemporary women find themselves trying to be both independent (as defined by herself) and feminine (as defined by men). de Beauvoir's analysis still challenges, I think, women who think that they can be both, and men who think that they can have everything.
Some favorite passages:
Of D. H. Lawrence's belief in monogamous marriage: "There is only a quest for variety if one is interested in the uniqueness of beings: but phallic marriage is founded on generality."
Of Stendhal's love of women: "...while he is walking around Rome, a woman emerges at every turn of the page, by the regrets, desires, sadnesses, and joys women awakened in him, he came to know the nature of his own heart..."
Of the lack of a penis: "It is sure that the absence of a penis will play an important role in the little girl's destiny, even if she does not really envy those who possess one. The great privilege that the boy gets from it is that as he is bestowed with an organ that can be seen and held, he can at least partially alienate himself in it. He projects the mystery of his body and its dangers outside himself, which permits him to keep them at a distance: of course, he feels endangered through his penis, he fears castration, but this fear is easier to dominate than the pervasive overall fear the girl feels concerning her "insides," a fear that will often be perpetuated throughout her whole life as a woman. She has a deep concern about everything happening inside her, from the start, she is far more opaque to herself and more profoundly inhabited by the worrying mystery of life than the male. Because he recognizes himself in an alter ego, the little boy can boldly assume his subjectivity, the very object in which he alienates himself becomes a symbol of autonomy, transcendence, and power: he measures the size of his penis; he compares his urinary stream with that of his friends; later, erection and ejaculation will be sources of satisfaction and challenge. But a little girl cannot incarnate herself in any part of her own body....
Of the need for action: "Violence is the authentic test of every person's attachment to himself, his passions, and his own will; to radically reject it is to reject all objective truth, it is to isolate one's self in an abstract subjectivity; an anger or a revolt that does not exert itself in muscles remains imaginary."
Of the attitude of straights to gays: "The homosexual man inspires hostility from male and female heterosexuals as they both demand that man be a dominating subject; by contrast, both sexes spontaneously view lesbians with indulgence."
Of marriage: "But the principle of marriage is obscene because it transforms an exchange that should be founded on a spontaneous impulse into rights and duties; it gives bodies an instrumental, thus degrading, side by dooming them to grasp themselves in their generality; the husband is often frozen by the idea that he is accomplishing a duty, and the wife is ashamed to feel delivered to someone who exercises a right over her." and "Eroticism is a movement toward the Other, and this is its essential character; but within the couple, spouses become, for each other, the Same; no exchange is possible between them anymore, no giving, no conquest. If they remain lovers, it is often in embarrassment: they fee; the sexual act is no longer an intersubjective experience where each one goes beyond himself, but rather a kind of mutual masturbation."
Of the link between marriage and colonialism: "Marriage incites man to a capricious imperialism: the temptation to dominate is the most universal and the most irresistible there is; to turn over a child to his mother or to turn over a wife to her husband is to cultivate tyranny in the world; it is often not enough for the husband to be supported and admired, to give counsel and guidance; he gives orders, he plays the sovereign; all the resentments accumulated in his childhood, throughout his life, accumulated daily among other men whose existence vexes and wounds him, he unloads at home by unleashing his authority over his wife..."
Of the lack of genius: "How could women even have had genius when all possibility of accomplishing a work of genius--or just a work--was refused them? Old Europe formerly heaped its contempt on barbarian Americans for possessing neither artists nor writers. "Let us live before asking us to justify our existence," Jefferson wrote, in essence. Blacks give the same answers to racists who reproach them for not having produced a Whitman or Melville. Neither can the French proletariat invoke a name like Racine or Mallarme. The free woman is just being born; when she conquers herself, she will perhaps justify Rimbaud's prophecy: "Poets will be. When woman's infinite servitude is broken, when she lives for herself and by herself, man--abominable until now--giving her her freedom, she too will be a poet! Woman will find the unknown! Will her worlds of ideas differ from ours? She will find strange, unfathomable, repugnant, delicious things, we will take them, we will understand them."
edders's review
5.0
The Second Sex is probably the most enlightening book I've ever read. I cannot think of a more monumental and holistic attempt to describe men and women's attitudes to one another, and I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone interested in feminism, women's rights etc.
Simone de Beauvoir's original work in French was translated into English in the early 50's, but unfortunately it was felt that there were philosophical diversions and a vocabulary that the public would not enjoy or understand; therefore throughout that first translation many sections of the original were removed. In this version, those passages have been reintroduced and the original style revived. de Beauvoir's style of huge sentences strung along many semicolons seemed daunting at first, but her precision with words and the clarity of her train of thought swept me along with her arguments and I had no problem following her in her discussion of women. This discussion is approached from many different angles, all of which complement one another: sexual/biological variation; psychoanalytical; history of women; personal/psychological experience of women; different attitudes of women (such as the mother, the adolescent, the mystic, or the woman in love). In addition de Beauvoir also reviews vast quantities of literature analysing the portrayal of women by so many authors - both male and female - and discusses whether these depictions in literature are an accurate mirror of women today or hopeful projections of what women could be in various circumstances.
All in all I found this book took a very long time to read, but that is only because of the massive wealth of information and insight it contains. Though dated to the 50's - I hope and feel that things have changed slightly since then - so much of what is written in The Second Sex rings true to today that I feel everyone should at least be taught the lessons of this book if they do not read it themselves. Both men and women owe it to themselves to think about inequality and whether we would all do better if it was removed.
Simone de Beauvoir's original work in French was translated into English in the early 50's, but unfortunately it was felt that there were philosophical diversions and a vocabulary that the public would not enjoy or understand; therefore throughout that first translation many sections of the original were removed. In this version, those passages have been reintroduced and the original style revived. de Beauvoir's style of huge sentences strung along many semicolons seemed daunting at first, but her precision with words and the clarity of her train of thought swept me along with her arguments and I had no problem following her in her discussion of women. This discussion is approached from many different angles, all of which complement one another: sexual/biological variation; psychoanalytical; history of women; personal/psychological experience of women; different attitudes of women (such as the mother, the adolescent, the mystic, or the woman in love). In addition de Beauvoir also reviews vast quantities of literature analysing the portrayal of women by so many authors - both male and female - and discusses whether these depictions in literature are an accurate mirror of women today or hopeful projections of what women could be in various circumstances.
All in all I found this book took a very long time to read, but that is only because of the massive wealth of information and insight it contains. Though dated to the 50's - I hope and feel that things have changed slightly since then - so much of what is written in The Second Sex rings true to today that I feel everyone should at least be taught the lessons of this book if they do not read it themselves. Both men and women owe it to themselves to think about inequality and whether we would all do better if it was removed.
wskent's review
4.0
Foundational, powerful, lasting. So much in here remains urgent. Grab a copy, devour it, tell your friends. Then read more feminist books. THANKS!
lnatal's review
4.0
The Second Sex is a 1949 book by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women throughout history.
xalaila's review
4.0
Lo sentí lento y un poco pesado. Muchos datos atemporales y ejemplos extremistas. Fuera de eso, me hizo reflexionar mucho sobre las vidas de mi abuela, de mi mamá y la mía propia. Muchas cosas me hicieron click. Vale la pena leerlo, quizá en pequeñas dosis (¿un capítulo a la vez?)
heavenly's review
4.0
This has been the most difficult book I've ever read bc of how large it was. It was pretty amazing tho. I learned so much.
miraclesnow's review
It's a bit too dense for me to read right now- the only reason I stopped was because I keep getting new books and have to pause on my older ones I forget about.
marianaparasense's review
5.0
“The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir is a raw, straightforward and absolutely necessary book about Feminism. Being originality published in 1949, it shows a raw point of view of a deep women thinker and Philosophy teacher on how woman are seen by men and by their “equals”. Not distant realities still be present in 2020. «Beauvoir never resists drawing parallels between racism and sexism, and the world hasn’t stopped being racist yet, either. Still, it’s better than it was in 1949.» (Introduction, XII, Natalie Haynes, 2015)
I read this book, but it’s just some Extracts from The Second Sex.
I love straightforwardness no matter how cruel it may seem. Beauvoir had it and showed it in the beginning with this introduction: “I hesitated a long time before writing a book on woman. The subject is irritating, especially for women; and it is not new. Enough ink has flowed over the quarrel about feminism; it is now almost over: let’s not talk about it any more. Yet it is still being talked about. And the volumes of idiocies churned out over this past century do not seem to have clarified the problem. Besides, is there a problem? And what is it? Are there even women?”
This is a book for all people. It may upset lot of people. That’s why it is worth reading.
I read this book, but it’s just some Extracts from The Second Sex.
I love straightforwardness no matter how cruel it may seem. Beauvoir had it and showed it in the beginning with this introduction: “I hesitated a long time before writing a book on woman. The subject is irritating, especially for women; and it is not new. Enough ink has flowed over the quarrel about feminism; it is now almost over: let’s not talk about it any more. Yet it is still being talked about. And the volumes of idiocies churned out over this past century do not seem to have clarified the problem. Besides, is there a problem? And what is it? Are there even women?”
This is a book for all people. It may upset lot of people. That’s why it is worth reading.
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