277
The many myths of woman as mother,
wife, virgin, symbol of nature, and so on
trap women, claimed de Beauvoir, into
impossible ideals, while denying their
individual selves and situations.See also: Hypatia of Alexandria 331 ■ Mary Wollstonecraft 175 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre
268–71 ■ Luce Irigaray 320 ■ Hélène Cixous 322 ■ Martha Nussbaum 339
THE MODERN WORLD
have written on behalf of the
equality of women, she says, have
done so by arguing that equality
means that women can be and do
the same as men. She claims that
this idea is mistaken, because it
ignores the fact that women and
men are different. De Beauvoir’s
philosophical background was in
phenomenology, the study of how
things appear to our experience.
This view maintains that each of us
constructs the world from within the
frame of our own consciousness; we
constitute things and meanings
from the stream of our experiences.
Consequently de Beauvoir maintains
that the relationship that we have to
our own bodies, to others, and to the
world, as well as to philosophy itself,
is strongly influenced by whether
we are male or female.
Existential feminism
Simone De Beauvoir was also an
existentialist, believing that we are
born without purpose and must
carve out an authentic existence for
ourselves, choosing what to become.
In applying this idea to the notion
of “woman”, she asks us to separate
the biological entity (the bodily
form which females are born into)
from femininity, which is a social
construct. Since any construct is
open to change and interpretion, this
means that there are many ways of
“being a woman”; there is room for
existential choice. In the introduction
to The Second Sex de Beauvoir
notes society’s awareness of this
fluidity: “We are exhorted to be
women, remain women, become
women. It would appear, then, that
every female human being is not
necessarily a woman.” She later
states the position explicitly: “One
is not born but becomes a woman.”
De Beauvoir says that women
must free themselves both from the
idea that they must be like men, and
from the passivity that society has
induced in them. Living a truly
authentic existence carries more
risk than accepting a role handed
down by society, but it is the only
path to equality and freedom. ■Representation of the
world is the work of men;
they describe it from
their own point of view.
Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir
The existentialist philosopher
Simone de Beauvoir was born
in Paris in 1908. She studied
philosophy at the Sorbonne
University, and it was here
that she met Jean-Paul Sartre,
with whom she began a
lifelong relationship. Both a
philosopher and an award-
winning novelist, she often
explored philosophical themes
within fictional works such as
She Came to Stay and The
Mandarins. Her most famous
work, The Second Sex, brought
an existentialist approach to
feminist ideas. Despite initially
being vilified by the political
right and left, and being placed
on the Vatican’s Index of
Forbidden Books, it became
one of the most important
feminist works of the 20th
century. De Beauvoir was a
prolific writer, producing
travel books, memoirs, a
four-volume autobiography,
and political essays over the
course of her life. She died at
the age of 78, and was buried
in Montparnasse cemetery.Key works1944 Pyrrhus and Cineas
1947 The Ethics of Ambiguity
1949 The Second Sex
1954 The Mandarins