The Second Sex

In Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”, she explains how women are encouraged to behave like a woman solely for the entertainment for men. She explains how “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” in her work which shows that women are constructed by society’s norms which shapes them into a woman. These external processors change her into an ideal doll. Her claim is completely accurate because throughout history and till this day, women have been expected to act a certain way and live up to society’s standards of being a woman. As shown in “The Second Sex” Beauvoir introduces many interesting points that demonstrate how society’s views and many other factors condition a person into a woman. In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir explains…

Through Simone DeBeauvoir’s The Second Sex and Dorothy Smith’s The Everyday World as Problematic, both of these writings integrate the roles and expectations of women in situations of their development, sexual intercourse and the exclusion of women from the dominant culture of men. In the development of American society and its capitalistic economy, the function and success of the American economy partially depended on the collective notion that women were inherently inferior. For women, this…

Final Simone de Beauvoir starts Volume 2 of The Second Sex by stating “One is not born but becomes a woman.” Meaning of this quote according to Beauvoir is to convey how a woman creates her physical exterior and internal character as she is present in the societal environment. Beauvoir illustrates gender and sex are an entirely different from each other and demonstrates incomparable aspects. Sex is given by nature and created in the womb, and gender is determined hereafter. the writer believes,…

Simone de Beauvoir has endured many experiences in her life, stemming from her works of writing and applying it to feminism and societal changes. The works of Beauvoir have reached the outermost parts of the world and have become feminist writing pillars for generations to come. Evidently, Beauvoir has become an inspiration for many women and philosophers in the establishment. Simone writes of her regular beliefs of existentialism, as well as the philosophy of women, exclusively spoken about…

Why is a woman “the other” of a man? The term “the other” describes the female’s secondary position, to a man, in her own mind and in society’s standards. In The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, the understanding of reality is made up of interaction between opposing forces. For an individual to define oneself and have a true understanding, s/he must also define something in opposition. “[A]t the moment when man asserts himself as subject and free being, the idea of the Other arises,” says…

The government was founded by men, and made for men. This is true for much government run functions. Simone De Beauvoir points it out early on in The Second Sex. “The whole of feminine history has been man-made” (Beauvoir). It is no secret that women were not made out to be as powerful as men from the beginning of civilization till the twentieth century. Contemporary Women’s Issues Database includes many factual articles that stress women and gender rights. “The omission of women from the…

The Comparison of identities in the Communist Manifesto and Introduction from the Second Sex. Clear Yingxin Xu This paper discusses connection between two different identities - the social class and gender, the former of which is valued the most in Karl Marx's the Communist Manifesto, and the latter, in Simone de Beauvoir's Introduction from the Second Sex. Two parts will be divided. The first part will focus on the Communist Manifest exclusively, and answer three questions: why Marx thinks…

While some women in society go against the myth of caregivers and weak individuals, Women are qualified as other in our social status because women are viewed to be submissive, physically weak, and are meant to be healers. Which is why I believe that de Beauvoir is morally and ethically correct, by believing the idea of the social myth behind woman is flawed. As stated in De Beauvoir’s book “The Second Sex”, is mainly about the social role of woman. During the time she published the book she…

This is the opening line of The Second Sex Book II. It represents the logical persistence of the proofs De Beauvoir presents in Book I to sustain her case that femininity does not arise from differences in biology, psychology, or intellect. Rather, femininity is a creation of civilization, a reflection not of “essential” differences in men and women but of differences in their situation. Situation determines character, not the other way around. Woman is not born fully formed; she is gradually…

love hurts discourse. She explains that the love hurts discourse tells women they should expect to be disappointed and mistreated by men in their hetero-relationships (Phillips, p.69). She states that the love hurts discourse generates the assumption that males are not responsible for misbehavior, and females need to tolerate and try to accept this (Phillips, p.72). The love hurts discourse means that love as complete painful experience is really common, and sexual violence is an inevitable part…