This week I’ll be exploring one of my favourite feminist texts: “The second sex” by Simone de Beauvoir. The name of this blog is inspired by this text and I am excited to explore one of the most influential feminist texts of the 20th century.
De Beauvoir wrote this text in the 1940’s, and she explored how women and men were unequal socially, economically and politically. At this time, women had a political voice thanks to being awarded the vote and it meant that many people believed that feminism was done, the fight was over. On the contrary, this was not true and De Beauvoir explored that.
“The Second Sex” is a thick book and I really recommend reading Vintage Book’s “Extracts from” as it contains the most important chapter of De Beauvoir’s text: Chapter 14. This chapter explores “The independent woman” and how women need to move away from a learnt dependence and rise up. De Beauvoir describes how women have now entered the workforce whilst still being attached to the constraints of domesticated motherhood. In conventional feminism this is called “the dual burden”. This was such an important revelation that De Beauvoir wrote into existence; it illustrated how whilst women believed that they were gaining independence, in reality, they were still entangled in the patriarchy.
One of my favourite quotes from this chapter is “Renouncing her femininity means renouncing part of her humanity” This perfectly illustrates to how many in early the 20th century, and arguably now, believed that our gender defines us and is an integral part of who we are. Whilst for some people this may be true, our identity is what we make it; if you want to identify as overly feminine or masculine then that is perfectly okay but one cannot put others down if they do not identify in a similar way. This quote was especially important when women began to work; earning money was deemed masculine and as soon as women chose to work the choice between family and career became incredibly stigmatised.
De Beauvoir also explored woman’s sexuality and how this is linked to dependence. De Beauvoir argues that women cannot have casual sex; there is something inherent in women that prevents them from doing so. Evidently, this argument may be outdated; for many women sex does not have to have strings attached and for many men sex is incredibly special and not just a casual affair. Biologically, sex is different for men and women and whilst there have been many studies into the different reactions and neuronal pathways that are used in each of the sexes, it is difficult to claim that all women cannot have casual sex and all men can.
Furthermore, this chapter also explores how women have always settled. “Woman easily settles for mediocre success; she does not dare to aim higher.” Interestingly, this alludes to how the glass ceiling is not just something that has been implemented by society but also an internalised belief that women cannot aim any higher. Of course, this belief has been drilled into us for years thanks to the integration of the patriarchal structure into our modern society. Thus, it has slowly become harder to defeat; women’s struggles are often gas-lit in today’s society leading to an internalised misogyny and glass ceiling. Thanks to De Beauvoir, it became evident that sexism was not as simple as it once appeared and this has allowed feminism to become intersectional.
This is one of my favourite feminist texts and I really recommend that people read it. De Beauvoir does take a very Feminist-Marxist point of view throughout the text, and whilst many people do not align with Marxism it is still an incredibly important feminist text that has shaped how we view feminism and wider society to this day.
Thank you for reading! Feel free to get in touch.
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