Beauvoir, The Second Sex – III

Posted: Thu, Oct 17, 2024

Recap

Two interpretations of Beauvoir:

The social constructivist reading: womanhood is the social meaning of the female biology.
- “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman”: society makes one into a woman.
- The problem is with the social institution of womanhood: it is a second class.
The existentialist reading: womanhood is a response to the female situation.
- “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”: one makes oneself into a woman.
- The problem is with the situation socially given to women: the world revolves around men, works by standards set by men; “the horizon is blocked for [women].”

One example: pp. 329, 320.

Possibility for resistance?

The social constructivist reading: reform the social institution of womanhood? abolish it?
The existentialist reading: not immediately clear?

Situation	Response
Logic and abstraction are useless to domestic lives (p. 639).	Women turn to the mysterious and the spiritual.
Women have little influence on the course of history (p. 641).	Women resent change.
Domestic work is boring, repetitive (p. 643).	Women become petty, mean, lazy, etc.
Women are tied to their individual families (p. 645).	Women do not recognize the value of solidarity.
Women do not find the world safe and trustworthy (p. 645).	Women worry all the time.
Husbands do not treat wives well (p. 647).	Women revolt through complaints, tears, and theater.
Domestic work has no higher meaning/importance (p. 649).	Women seek male affection for validation.
Morality blames women for men’s sins (p. 652).	Women recognize the hypocrisy and play along.
Men want women to submit, but freely (p. 653).	Women treat it as playacting/a kink.
Women experience their bodies as a burden (p. 657).	Women do not believe that the world is harmonious.
Women are stuck in the immanent/worldly (p. 659).	Women turn to religion, aiming for transcendence in the heaven.

The problem: being a free, autonomous human being is incompatible with being a woman (pp. 723–25).