Bovova wrote in The High Years that the "feminism" and "gender war" of the early 1930s mean nothing to her. So, why did Beauvoir write the so-called "feminist Bible"?
"Second Sex " was published, Beauvoir was 41 years old. Beauvoir has witnessed a totally inequality relationship between her parents. As a girl, when Beauvoir knew that boys and girls were equal in God's eyes, she opposed being treated as "girls". Since being harassed by a clerk in a bookstore, Beauvoir has often felt uneasy in front of men he didn't know. Beauvoir lost his good friend Zaza, who died in a debate about dowry, etiquette and love. Beauvova has also witnessed his friend being infected and hospitalized after an illegal abortion. Beauvoir also spoke to women who knew nothing about the function and pleasure of their bodies. The experience of traveling abroad made Beauvoir realize that the reason why public order and good customs seems necessary may be because the public is following it. Beauvoir has read the novel Ravages by his friend Violet Ledic, and her opening candid discussion of female sexual behavior shocked her: the book tells about women's sexual behavior in "never before, real and poetic language."
Bovova wrote in Pyros and Cineas that everyone must have a place in the world, but only a few people can choose their own position freely. The human situation is ambiguous: we are both subject and object. As an object, your world is limited by constraints imposed by others. As a subject, your behavior not only realizes personal freedom, but also creates new conditions for others in the world. At the age of 18, Beauvoir wrote in her diary: "There are many things that are annoying in love." Her novels in the 1940s broke the boundaries between philosophy and literature. But in "The Second Sex", Beauvoir believes that what happens in the name of "love" is not love at all. This time, Beauvoir blurs the boundaries between individuals, philosophy and politics, and thus has mixed praise and criticism. It was only decades later that this work was recognized as a feminist classic. So, what exactly does this book talk about? It can not only arouse strong disgust from people at that time, but also be regarded as a classic decades later?
In the first line of "Second Sex", Beauvoir did not hide her hesitation and anger at the topic of "women". Beauvoir wrote: "I hesitated for a long time before writing a book about women. But in the past century, many traditional long essays have been published, mourning the loss of femininity and telling women that they must "be a woman, keep the state of a woman, be a woman" - so she is no longer willing to passively accept and stand by.
"Become Beauvoir", [English] Kate Kirkpatrick, translated by Liu Haiping, CITIC Publishing House, March 2021.
If you look at the era in which Beauvoir is located, we can better understand the silence before Beauvoir. In 1863, Jules Verne wrote a book called "Paris in the 20th Century" (Paris in the Twentieth). Century's novel. Verne boldly predicts in this book that women will wear pants in the future and they will be educated like men. Other novels by Verne describe the fantasy achievements of human beings, such as submarines, such as traveling around the earth within 80 days, or even traveling to the moon! Although Verne was a well-known and successful science fiction writer, people at the time believed that the work had crossed the line. Verne's literary agent thought "Paris in the 20th Century" was too far-fetched. In the era in which Beauvoir lived, Coco Chanel wore trousers and flowing fashion clothing, making neutral style a trend. Women entered the workplace with unprecedented numbers, and they had just won the right to vote. Some women even ranked higher than men in the competitive national exams. But women still couldn’t have their own bank accounts until the 1965 Napoleon Code was revised. But in the late 1940s, the word “feminism” was closely linked to women’s demand for suffrage.In the United States and France, women have successfully obtained the right to vote, so what else do they want?
When Beauvoir looked at history, she discovered that humans had a habit of observing other people's bodies and establishing hierarchies based on their physical characteristics, such as slavery. Everyone agrees with this on the issue of race. But Beauvoir asked: So what is it like when it comes to gender? Beauvoir believes that men define women as “others” and classify them into another level: the second sex.
Beauvoir talked to American feminists during her trip to the United States. She knew that some feminists even believed that the word "female" had long been a meaningless word. But Beauvoir believes that this practice is a "self-deception". Dorothy Parker believes that gender inequality can be addressed by defining women as “human” rather than “female.” But the problem with the view that “we are all humans” is that women are not men. The equality they enjoy on this level is abstract, and the possibilities that men and women have are completely different.
Everyone has their own unique situation. Specifically, the situations in which men and women are in are unequal. But why is it unequal? Beauvoir points out that anyone can see that humans are divided into two categories according to gender, and also have different bodies, faces, clothing, interests and occupations. But even so, having a certain type of reproductive organ is not enough to make a person considered a "female", because some women who have such reproductive organs are still accused of being "not women enough". When novelist George Sandham despises traditional femininity, Gustav Flaubert satirizes her as " third gender ".
Therefore, Beauvoir asked: If being a woman is not a sufficient condition for becoming a woman, then what is a woman?
Beauvoir's answer to the question "What is a woman?" is that women are not what men do. As Protagora says, "Men are the measure of human nature", that is, men are the standard for judging "people". Throughout history, men have believed that women are inferior and their views have nothing to do with "humanity". Even in the 1940s, Beauvoir still found that her views were roughly denied because of her female identity:
I used to hear men say to me in discussions of abstract questions, "You think this way or that is because you are a woman." I know that my only defense is to answer "I think this way because it is true" to eliminate my subjectivity; I cannot respond to these people: "The reason you think the opposite of me is because you are a man." Because the public believes that being a man is not special; a man has rights just because he is a man.
When Beauvoir proposed the idea that "women are men who are not", he borrowed the "other" theory of Hegel . Humans have a deep-rooted tendency to oppose themselves to others, so men regard themselves as the "subject" of freedom and women as the object. But Beauvoir wanted to figure out why this situation was so common and lasting. Beauvoir wondered why no more women came forward to oppose men belittle them? Beauvoir is very familiar with common reasons people oppose feminism: feminism can ruin family values! Feminism will lower wages! Women should stay at home! Men and women are “independent and equal”! Beauvovar thought these were excuses for people to "deceive themselves", just like Jim Crowfa. 8Berner Shaw criticized white Americans for asking black people to polish their shoes, and then concluded that all black people can do is polish their shoes. Beauvoir believes that people make equally ineffective inferences about women's abilities - women are believed to be in a lower position in society, but Beauvoir points out that this is because women are always in a disadvantaged situation, which does not mean that they are born inferior."We must understand the category of the verb 'is' (to be), and what kind of person is actually 'be' (have become').
The hopeful side of "becoming" is that things can get better. For centuries, people have been arguing about the situation of "humanity". Beauvoir asked, "Can a person achieve himself in a woman's situation?"
In a large 972-page two-volume work, Beauvoir only discusses this small part in the foreword, but this part is not the first readers of Beauvoir to read. "The Second Sex" was published in two volumes in June and November 1949. From a publicity perspective, Beauvoir serialized and published some of the content of "Second Sex" in previous issues of "Modern Times", which obviously achieved good results, but she was also condemned by the public for this. In 1963, Beauvoir publicly reviewed her work in the book "The Power of Times", she wrote that "Second Sex" made herself a "target of irony" and faced unprecedented attacks. In addition, irony is not the worst, and personal attacks on Beauvoir followed one after another.
1949, Algren was coming to Paris, and Beauvoir worked hard to complete some of the contents of the book. Fortunately, Beauvoir found this book much easier to write than the novel. When writing novels, Beauvoir must carefully conceive ideas, shape characters, pay attention to plot, dialogue and preparation. When writing "Second Sex", she only needs to study the problems, organize the materials, and put them on the pen. Beauvoir wants women to be free. There seem to be only two possible reasons for women not to be free: either because they are oppressed, or because women choose not to be free. No matter what the situation is, there is a moral problem - but whose moral problem is it?
When Algren arrived in Paris, Beauvoir was a little nervous because they were in a bad state when they parted last time. Beauvoir went to see him in a white coat he wore when he was in Chicago two years ago. When Algren was around Beauvoir, the "big family" could not believe the changes they saw in Beauvoir - she became gentle and happy. Previously, Algren had been nervous about meeting Sartre, but he didn't expect that their first meeting was pleasant and Algren relaxed. He likes to talk to Olga and Sartre's new lover Michel Vian because they can talk to him in English and listen to him tell the sin stories of Americans.
That summer, Beauvoir decided to publish part of the second volume of "Second Sex" in several issues in Modern Times magazine - about "Life Experience". In the second part, Beauvoir uses different narrative methods to historically sort out different stages or possibilities of female life from a first-person perspective: childhood, becoming a girl, adolescence, sexual enlightenment, lesbians, marriage, mothers, social expectations, prostitutes, and old age.
In May 11949, Beauvoir published the chapter "The Sexual Initiation of Woman", which was thought-provoking and caused a strong response. In the book, Beauvoir depicts a vision of a voluntary, mutually rewarding sexual behavior in which women can view themselves as subject rather than as objects to enjoy sexual behavior. Beauvoir proposed that women should refuse to passively and obediently accept non-equality and reciprocal male desires, but should establish a "equality and reciprocal relationship" with their partners in "love, tenderness and lust". As long as there is a gender dispute, the asymmetry of men and women will bring unsolvable problems; and if women can satisfy their desires and gain respect from men, these problems will be solved. But later, Beauvoir felt that publishing that chapter might be a mistake.
Respected Catholic novelist François Moriac satirized Beauvoir's writing "simply reached the limit of inferiority."He even commented: "Is it really appropriate for Ms. Simone de Beauvoir to discuss this topic in a serious place to discuss serious philosophy and literature?" François Moriac was the writer who Beauvoir had made a pilgrimage with Merleau-Ponty on his way to visit Zaza when he was a student. For decades, he has been a language master admired by Beauvoir, but now he criticizes Beauvoir in such words. Modern Times magazine sold out on newsstands in June and July. Many readers are angry that Beauvoir has published chapters on lesbianity and motherhood in these two issues. At that time, Beauvoir had already lost his reputation because of his relationship with Sartre, but now Beauvoir has attracted another wave of insults: "Hungry, cold, lewd, female pornography, lesbians, miscarriages a hundred times." Beauvoir was criticized by "sex fanatics" and "the activists of the first gender." The Communist Party calls Beauvoir a petty bourgeoisie because her works have nothing to do with the working class. This time, the respectable conservative pillar character François Moriac wrote to a sponsor of Modern Times: "Your staff's... is no longer a secret to me." After these words were made public, Moriac was shocked. Shortly thereafter, he began publishing a series of articles in the Journal of Le Figaro Littéraire, which comprehensively condemned pornographic literature, especially Simone de Beauvoir.
html In June, the first volume of Beauvoir's "Second Sex" was officially published, with amazing sales, and 22,000 copies sold in the first week. Beauvoir declared that “biology is not fate” and neither is marriage and childbirth. Beauvoir pointed out that women like Madame Curie proved that it is not that "the natural inferiority of women determines their humble status in history, but that their humble status in history leads to their failure to achieve." However, regardless of status, various cultures are strengthening and consolidating the "myth" that oppresses women. Beauvoir wrote: "Women are not a fixed reality, but a process of becoming. She must find the possibility that she can be in comparison with men. That is, when a person considers transcendence, this is a conscious, changing, free existence that cannot be ended."
Beauvoir believes that if a woman has a certain destiny in physiological, psychological or economic terms, then there will be no problem. At the same time, there will be a universal "feminine temperament", and the person with this temperament is "female". In the first part of "The Second Sex", Beauvoir analyzes "women" from the perspectives of biology, psychoanalysis and history. But Beauvoir did not find satisfactory explanations about the secondary status of women in science, , Freud, and Marx. Beauvoir also explains why their analysis is incomplete: Why does Freud, who has never had any experience in women, think that he can discuss women's experience based on his own male experience?
Communist journalist Janet Pronant criticized Beauvoir for preventing women from becoming wives and mothers. Another female critic, Mary Louise Baron, called the first volume of "The Second Sex" a "complex and difficult book of heaven" and predicted that the second volume would only provide readers with "trivial things". Arman Hug wrote that what Beauvoir really wanted to liberate was herself—as a woman, she felt humiliated, but “she was born a woman, and I really couldn’t see what she could change… Destiny was barely allowed to be denied”.
Beauvoir's infamy caused by "Second Sex" made it a bit embarrassing to take Algren to visit Paris. Beauvoir hoped to take Algren to visit her world, which she had been looking forward to for two years. She couldn't wait to take Algren to her favorite restaurants and cafes, but it made her feel uncomfortable when people saw her and stared at them all the time.So after Bastille Day , Beauvoir breathed a sigh of relief. She and Algren went to Rome , Naples , Amalfi and Pompeii for two months, and then went to Tunisia , Algiers , Fes , Marrakech . On their way back from North Africa , they went to Provence to visit Olga and Boster, who jokingly called him "tough guy Algren".
html In mid-September, Beauvoir sent Algren to Oli Airport , and she felt they had the best time. Beauvoir plans to visit Algren next year, and Algren is also very happy. During the turnaround, Algren discovered in a magazine that his novel TheMan with the Golden Arm had just won the National Book Award . His career reached its peak. In October, Hemingway wrote a letter to his editor, in which he praised Algren as "the best writer under the age of 50 today who is still writing."
html In October, Beauvoir returned to Provence and wrote with Sartre. Beauvoir has been considering writing a new novel for a while, but she needs to deal with the matter of "Second Sex". Beauvoir wanted to create a character based on herself in her new novel, but she once again faced the blank paper in front of her and didn't know where to start. In this book, there will be a character similar to Beauvoir: Anna. Beauvoir and Sartre took a walk, read, and met friends. One day, they visited Sosper and Pera Cava, and on Sunday of the following week, they were surprised to find that all the experiences that afternoon had been reported. Beauvoir found this endless attention to be really boring; but in fact it was just the tip of the iceberg. Beauvoir decided to translate an Algren novel—when she didn't write novels, she went to translate books.
11949, the second volume of "Second Sex" was published. There is a famous saying among them: "Women are not born, but become acquired." Beauvoir believes that every woman's experience is a process of becoming, not a book that is tightly closed. So Beauvoir wanted to show women's descriptions of their life experiences in the book, and to show how they were "other" throughout their life. As an open person, Beauvoir is still in the process of becoming himself and trying to understand his experience. Beauvoir realized that some of the obstacles she faced pose a macro threat to the growth of other women. Despite the passage of time, Beauvoir was still influenced by Alfred Fuere. Fuye believes that "people are not born free, but become free." Beauvoir believes that it is not biology, psychology and economics that make men and women have different lives and that women submit to men; in this process, "civilization" also plays an important role. But obviously, "civilization" did not play such a role in Simone de Beauvoir.
Beauvoir's candid attitude towards women's sexual behavior has caused her to suffer various scandals and attacks, but the most enduring attack she has received comes from her analysis of her mother's position. Beauvoir believes that society is immersed in a kind of collective self-deception that is different from others: the entire society despises women, but at the same time respects mothers. "The whole society does not allow women to participate in all public activities, does not allow them to engage in male occupations, claims that women are incapable in all fields, but society entrusts women with the most complex and important task - raising humans - to women. This is simply a sinful paradox."
The war caused a sharp decline in France's population and France needed citizens, so Beauvoir was accused of betraying her gender and country. After the war, French industry needed a revival, so in addition to more newborns, they also needed more women to enter the labor market. In the past and at that time, Beauvoir's articles had many shocking aspects, and afterwards, considering the political environment at that time, some of Beauvoir's writings seemed to be misjudgmental for women who did not feel that they were "slaves". Beauvoir calls pregnant women the host of "parasitics" and slaves to human species.(In fact, Schopenhauer made similar remarks, but for some reason he did not elicit the same reaction.) Beauvoir was interested in pregnancy because pregnancy was a subjective experience of women “seeing themselves from the inside out” – they lost their physical autonomy and were anxious about what kind of mother they would become. Beauvoir claims that women should not be reduced to a tool for childbirth, and she also said (although few seem to notice) that this does not mean a total refusal to be a mother. Beauvoir wanted to prove that even the same thing as pregnancy, childbirth and care for children—those considered typical female physical experiences—can produce different experiences depending on the situation of a woman.
Obviously, Beauvoir herself is not a mother, and she admits this, drawing on other women's discourses in her works, including from various letters, diaries and novels to prove that "the experience of pregnancy and motherhood varies from person to person, depending on whether they occur in resistance, obedience, satisfaction or enthusiasm." Beauvoir wants to clarify two misconceptions about being a mother. One is that "being a mother can satisfy a woman under any circumstances", and the other is that children "can definitely find happiness in the mother's arms." Through research, Beauvoir found that although many women enjoy being mothers, they do not want it to be the only career in their lives. Beauvoir believes that if mothers feel frustrated and dissatisfied, their children are unlikely to feel happy. Therefore, Beauvoir concluded that obviously, it is better for a mother to be a complete person than for a child. Many male readers object to Beauvoir's argument: Beauvoir himself is not a mother, how dare he talk about this sacred topic? Beauvoir responded that it was not a mother that never stopped men from talking about the topic of mother.
In addition to criticizing society’s self-deception of the topic of mother, Beauvoir also explores the theme that has bothered her for decades: the ethics of love and dedication. In Second Sex, Beauvoir points out that “love” has different meanings for men and women, and these differences lead to many differences between men and women.
Bovova believes that men are still the "supreme subject" in love - they pursue their beloved women, and at the same time pursue other things. Love is an inseparable part of their lives, but only a part. By contrast, for women, love is regarded as life itself, and love ideals encourage women to sacrifice themselves for the people they love and even completely forget themselves. Men are taught to love actively and proactively while growing up, but at the same time they are ambitious and make a difference in other areas. Women are taught that their value is conditional - they must be loved by men to be valuable.
One of the obstacles to true love is that women are objectified so severely that they objectify themselves, trying to identify with their beloved man, and constantly pursue the charm in his eyes. A woman in love tries to look through the eyes of the person she loves, and shaped her world and herself around him: she reads books he likes and is interested in his artistic interests, music, thoughts, friends, political ideas, etc. Beauvoir also opposed sexual inequality, pointing out that many women are regarded as "tools" for men's pleasure, and that women's desires and pleasures are never within the scope of consideration.
In Beauvoir's view, the main problem with love is that it is not mutual. Men hope that women will give themselves love in a way that does not seek reward. Therefore, love is dangerous to women, but not to men. Beauvoir didn't blame the man entirely for this matter. Women also have a certain responsibility in this, and they permanently perpetuate the oppressive structure of unequal love by participating. But Beauvoir wrote that it is difficult to make women not participate, because the world has tempted women to accept this oppression.
Although Beauvoir's narrative in Second Sex largely constructed the discussion with a heterosexual framework, she herself has faced the tension brought by this relationship with women.In 1940, Beauvoir had a conversation with Bianca, in which Bianca said that he wanted to play a more important role in Beauvoir's life. After the conversation, Bianca wrote to Beauvoir:
You don't give, you just ask for it.
You say I am your life, and this is not true - your life is a collage of mosaics.
But to me, you are my life and I belong to you completely.
Bovova believes that true love may exist in mutual relationships, and she hopes that this form of love will be more common in the future. When that day comes, women can show their strength rather than weakness in love, and no longer have to escape from themselves in love, but find themselves. They no longer have to give up on themselves for love, but affirm themselves. For women and men, love is no longer a fatal danger, but a source of their lives. In Beauvoir's vision, women can be loved as a subject and be loved, but it is not easy. Because the fallacy of one-way love constantly consolidates women's subordinate status, this fallacy promises that women's love can save them, but in fact sends them to hell alive. Just like Beauvoir's novels, "Second Sex" also makes people wonder: How much content in Beauvoir's philosophy is autobiographical? In addition to Beauvoir's early encounter with Bianca, in a letter written by Beauvoir to her later lover, she confessed that what she really lacked in her relationship with Sartre was not sex, but "real mutual feedback." This makes us ask the question: Did Beauvoir herself experience this love when she described “mutual love” in 1949? There are also some texts in "Second Sex" that are very similar to Beauvoir's own upbringing, including a "sister" who hates being involved in "housework" and a grandparent who "does not hide it" that they prefer their grandchildren rather than their granddaughters. Did Beauvoir take it from her research on "women", or did she and her childhood life experiences? Beauvoir's chapter on lesbians also caused speculation. The letter Beauvoir wrote to Sartre was published after her death, before that people stumbled on her homosexuality from her novels. In "Lady Duan Fang", Beauvoir once wrote that she had a "vague desire" for women, and people couldn't help but guess whether these came from her own experiences, or even her suppressed desires. Is Beauvoir also "self-deception" about his sexual orientation? In Second Sex, Beauvoir claims that “the fate of sexuality cannot dominate a person’s life” and that homosexuality is “a choice made based on a complex whole that depends on a free decision.”
In the 1930s, Beauvoir's novel "Spirit of Spirit" was rejected by the publisher. The editor at the time Henry Miller wrote to Beauvoir: "You are satisfied with describing a world that falls apart, but when you write to the critical point of the new order, you abandon your readers there, and you have not given any hints for the benefits of the new order." At the end of "Second Sex", Beauvoir completed the part she did not complete back then.
Therefore, at the end of "Second Sex", Beauvoir wrote a chapter "Independent Women": The freedom of independent women comes at a price, but not at the price of love.
In this chapter, Beauvoir points out that in a society that makes women other, men are in a favorable position, not only because of the benefits they gain (which are already obvious from the outside), but also because of the inner feelings of men. From childhood, men can freely pursue and enjoy their careers. No one will ever tell them that the career they want to pursue will conflict with their happiness as lovers, husbands, and fathers, and their success will never reduce their chances of being loved. But for women, for the sake of femininity, she must give up what Beauvoir calls "subjectivity", that is, she cannot have an ideal vision for her life, and cannot pursue the career she wants to achieve as she wishes, because all of this is considered "without femininity."This puts women in a lose-lose situation: being yourself means becoming unworthy of being loved, and if you want to get love, you have to give up on yourself. Sartre once wrote that as humans, we are “destined to be free.” Beauvoir wrote here that as women, we are destined to feel divided and destined to be "the subject of division."
The root of the problem lies in the concept that "individuals cannot shape femininity at will." It is not difficult for men to understand that men have benefited from this fallacy about femininity for centuries, and that men are afraid of losing this fallacy and the corresponding benefits it brings. Therefore, men tell women that they do not need to have their own careers, and marriage and family are all women; they tell women that it is against their nature to desire to achieve something; as long as they succeed in being the object of male desire, women can be "happy" until women sacrifice themselves for love and become wives and mothers. Beauvoir points out that men should be upset by this because “we can never measure the happiness of others, and people always easily call the situation they want to impose on others happiness.”
11949, the second volume of "Second Sex" was published, and critics began a new round of criticism - Beauvoir later described the criticism he was hit at that time as horrifying. Andre Rousseau, a columnist of Le Figaro, thinks that Beauvoir is a "female follower of Baccos, the god of Baccarcos in Roman mythology." He feels that Beauvoir's article on "sexual enlightenment" made him feel ashamed. Andre criticizes Beauvoir for destroying love in pursuit of freedom, and women have been liberated! Andre spent a lot of time mocking and attacking Beauvoir: "The reason why this woman is someone else is because she is angry with her inferiority complex." Andre also mocked Beauvoir for being so tough, he should need existentialism to rescue her from her obsession. In L'Esprit, Emmanuel Munier said that he regretted to find Beauvoir's book "Second Sex" full of "resentful tone". Emmanuel said that if the author could control his emotions better, perhaps "it would not have prevented her from expressing herself clearly." These critics say that Beauvoir's life is miserable, neurotic, and depressed. Camus accused Beauvoir of "making French men look ridiculous". Philosopher Jean Gidong said that Beauvoir's "tragic life" was seen from the lines, which made her feel very painful. French Time magazine L'Epoque published an article that predicts that in ten years no one will talk about "this disgusting debate on sexual perversion and abortion".
The Vatican Church listed Beauvoir's "Second Sex" as a forbidden book. In "The Second Sex", Beauvoir conducted a philosophical discussion on the issue of women's oppression. She concluded from the life experiences of women (including herself) that in order to become a true "person", it is necessary to change the situation of many women. Beauvoir believes that women's desires should affect their sex; women's careers should affect their family life; women's subjective initiative should affect the world.
But most of the attacks Beauvoir were completely targeted by her. In many places, Beauvoir was sarcastic, ridiculed and ridiculed. But that's not all - the next generation welcomes and embraces this work by Beauvoir. The next generation of readers find this book unprecedented and openly talks about the once taboo topic of women's experience: some readers are eager to understand their physical condition, and even read "Second Sex" as a sex manual. Paris Match published a partial excerpt from Second Sex in August, introducing the author Beauvoir as Jean-Paul Sartre’s deputy and existentialist expert, and undoubtedly the first female philosopher to appear in male history. Beauvoir has the responsibility to extract a female philosophy from the great adventures of mankind.
Since its publication, Beauvoir's "gender philosophy" has often been summarized as distinguishing the concepts of "sex" and "gender".In these two concepts, the former is biological (for example, male gender and female gender), while the latter is acquired through cultural accumulation (for example, male and female). However, there are major problems with the simply view that "Second Sex" only distinguishes "sex" from "gender". First, the word “gender” has never appeared in this book. Secondly, even in 1949, the concept of "female" had biological and cultural implications, and the long-standing view of women being oppressed was not original by Beauvoir. In the centuries before Beauvoir, as she discussed in Second Sex, philosophers and writers have always claimed that women have a disadvantage in society because of their lack of specific educational, economic and career opportunities, not because of any inherent disadvantage. For example, Diderot wrote in the 18th century that women's inferiority is "largely socially."
It is important to note this because only summarizing "Second Sex" as "Gender is a social construction", which will make people even more ignore an unpopular but more important point: a large reason for women's long-term oppression is the materialization of the female body by society. In Volume 1, “Facts and Myths,” Beauvoir studies the way “femininity” is constructed into the fate of women—and she discovers time and time again that idealized women must be the object of male desire.
The second volume of "Life Experience" is much longer than the first volume. Here, Beauvoir uses a different analysis method to explore the issue of "what is a woman" from the perspective of women and the stages of life in which women are. Beauvoir did this to subvert the philosophical perspective of power. Instead of analyzing “women” from the perspective of those who hold power, Beauvoir turned to the daily lives of those who were expected to obey. To do this, Beauvoir must discuss topics that some philosophical elites think are not worthy of being called “philosophy”: how housework is distributed, how managers evaluate work, and how women experience sexual enlightenment and sexual practice. None of these problems are elevated to the nature of reality or the possibility of knowledge. Instead, these questions are about who has the power to decide which part of the reality is more important and who has a better say in determining knowledge.
Beauvoir is very clear that it is difficult to let women speak for themselves. Because one of the characteristics of women being oppressed is that they cannot record their lives like men. Female voices are rarely made public, and even if their testimony is made public, they are often denounced as one-sided or false, malicious or immoral. To analyze women’s obedience, Beauvoir enumerates the experiences of specific women in the private sphere and how women are structurally and systematically forbidden to speak out.
One of Beauvoir's childhood inspirations, George Eliot once wrote: "If we have seen things deeply and felt keenly in the ordinary human world, we will hear the growth of grass and the heartbeat of squirrels, and will find the loud noise on the other side of the silence, and the rumbling sound is deafening."46 For Beauvoir, on the other side of the silence, she heard the uneasy echo of doubt, obedience and despair. It was the collective chanting of aphasic women: "What did I become?"
When studying and collecting materials for "Second Sex", Beauvoir was frustrated by her discovery, but she also found a reason for hope. Yes, in 1949, women were lower than men, "this is because their situation offers them much less possibilities." But things may be different if men and women no longer hide behind their own excuses. Photos of Simon de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sat in Beijing in 1955.
1955, photos of Simon de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sat in Beijing.
"Second Sex" is often described as a book that "applied" Sartre's philosophy to "female problems". At this stage, Beauvoir did agree with Sartre on certain things, for example, the importance of freedom.But she did the same thing as philosophers—approved what she thought was right, abandoning what she thought was wrong, inconsistent or immoral, even the opinions of the people she loved. Beauvoir rejected Sartre's concept of "situation" and drew on Heidegger's description of human beings being "thrown" into a world, which always has meaning that humans cannot create. Beauvoir went all out to answer the question she asked Sartre in the 1930s: How can a woman locked in a boudoir achieve?
Now Beauvoir has realized more clearly that women are not necessarily locked up in the boudoir, nor are they necessarily told that their value comes from amplifying the greatness of men or satisfying their happiness. Even in 1949, in the United States or France, women could not simply escape the limitations of the possibility that gender differences put on her by claiming to be human. Philosophers like Husserl, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty have begun to write philosophy about the body (Western philosophers have long ignored the subject of the body and tended to write philosophy of the mind). In this regard, Beauvoir points out that male philosophers fail to consider the alienation of women, especially women when they find their bodies deprecated into some kind of object of male gaze. This male gaze regards the female body as a "prey" that they hunt and possess, rather than treating women as a person in the process of becoming.
Beauvoir is not satisfied with the philosophical thinking about women seen through this distorted perspective. Therefore, Beauvoir adopts an original philosophical approach, presented in a variety of first-person perspectives, which she calls “describing the world proposed by society to women from a female perspective.” If women are really born to succumb to men, then there is nothing immoral about the hierarchy between men and women. But if this hierarchy is continued and consolidated by culture, and women’s submission is seen as “degradation” of freedom, then this question is a moral issue, and both the oppressors involved and the oppressed are responsible for correcting this issue. In the second volume of "Second Sex", Beauvoir uses various women's voices to show how they become women under the hegemony of the fallacies created by men. Beauvoir uses these discourses to present the apprentice situation that women faced since their girls' age, constantly preparing to give up their autonomy in order to become a woman who serves men.
Because some of the contents of this book were published in the magazine in advance, some early readers could not understand Beauvoir's views as a whole from beginning to end. But it was not these fragmented interpretations that led to so many personal attacks on Beauvoir. Many readers strongly hope that Beauvoir is wrong, and hope that they have never read Beauvoir, or that Beauvoir has been misread. After all, making excuses is a shortcut for people to get out of trouble. If Beauvoir’s readers dismiss her as a thinker who lacks originality, a failed woman or an immoral person, they can again shut up the women who shout in silence without being troubled by the human suffering that Beauvoir described in “The Situation of Women.”
1949, in a radio interview about "Second Sex", Beauvoir was asked about the attacks she was exposed after the publication of the book. Beauvoir said it was not her fault. In France, when women are mentioned, "people think of sex immediately." Beauvoir also noticed that although there is relatively little content about sex in the more than 1,000 pages of "Second Sex", these contents are the ones that receive the most comments. Beauvoir believes that it is problematic to not be taken seriously and seriously, because sexual issues should be philosophically examined. People seem to think that philosophy cannot be a living thing, nor will it illuminate this aspect of human life.
"Second Sex" did not immediately succeed after its publication - "Second Sex" surpassed its era, and frankly, for many people, "Second Sex" made them frightened.The vast amount of classic philosophical and literary education that Beauvoir received can be reflected in this work: in "The Second Sex", Beauvoir quotes the works of ancient Greek playwrights, the works of Roman philosophers, the Bible and the Quran, as well as centuries of philosophical and theological writing about women, a large number of literary works, letter diaries, and psychoanalysis records. In addition, Beauvoir also uses phenomenological methods and existentialist perspectives to analyze these contents. Marine Rush studies have found that many readers of Beauvoir wrote letters for writing "Second Sex" so hard and obscure. A reader asked frankly:
Why do you want to write such a book? Is it to allow literary clubs of hundreds (or thousands) to study the profound terms of metaphysics and existentialism? Or is it to let the public with common sense and understanding solve this kind of problem? Can't we give up the so-called professional "philosophers" and express it in the language of life?
Encouraged by Beauvoir’s works, feminists in the 1960s and 1970s will fight against the “really stupid things that people with the most outstanding minds say to women”. But in 1949, Beauvoir did not know that "Second Sex" would be recognized as a classic work and could inspire political movements. When the time comes, feminists criticize Beauvoir for having a "unconscious misogyny" and criticize Beauvoir for separating himself from women when describing them. Some people believe that Beauvoir turns a blind eye to class, race, and education privileges; others believe that Beauvoir understands these privileges, but mistakenly universalizes the experience of women. Beauvoir was accused of writing his personal experience as a universal experience; but at the same time, Beauvoir was praised for converting his personal experience into a kind of "enriched anger" to write the book. Some feminists oppose Beauvoir, accusing her of excluding women of color and using their suffering as a rhetorical strategy to safeguard the interests of white feminism. In the decades after the publication of "Second Sex", Beauvoir received a large number of letters from readers, who admitted that he was too naive to men and her personal experience. Beauvoir became a "symbolical" woman whose personal life was exempted from all kinds of gender oppression in daily life. But shortly after the publication of "Second Sex", Beauvoir paid a high price for his outspokenness. The book brought Beauvoir out of Sartre's shadow, but put her in another scandal - Beauvoir became the object of all kinds of ridicule, resentment and humiliation.
Tori Moy wrote in Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman that by the end of 1949, "Simone de Beauvoir had truly become Simone de Beauvoir: She was 'created' in both personal and career." Tori Moy believes that most of Beauvoir's works after 1949 were "retrospective", and after that, Beauvoir "almost always wrote autobiography." However, from a professional perspective, at that time, Beauvoir had not written her future award-winning novel "The Mandarins", two other volumes of novels and her life writing, as well as books about her later years - Beauvoir would provide support for major changes in French legislation. In the future, "Second Sex" will become the leader of the second wave of feminist movement; at that time, Beauvoir's career as a feminist activist had not even begun. From a personal perspective, Beauvoir will also usher in a mutual love relationship, and there are still many possibilities of "becoming" waiting for her in the future.
text/ [English] Kate Kirkpatrick
