Beauvoir, The Second Sex – IV
Posted: Wed, Mar 5, 2025
Recap
Two interpretations of Beauvoir:
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The social constructivist reading: womanhood is the social meaning of a 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.
- Note that the social constructivist reading presumes some clean separation of biology and society. Is this tenable?
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The existentialist reading: womanhood is a response to a female situation.
- “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”: one’s choices make 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].”
Possibility for resistance?
- The social constructivist reading: reform the social institution of womanhood? abolish it?
- The existentialist reading: not immediately clear?
Reverse Jigsaw
Each group should have at least one of: a cat person, a dog person, a bird person, a fish person, and a lizard person. With your group, work through the following questions for the passage assigned (we will work on one passage at a time); then find classmates of your species and share your group’s answers with them.
- What is a social constructivist reading of this passage?
- What is an existentialist reading of this passage?
- What difference does reading the passage in these two contrasting ways make?
Here are our passages:
- First sex: pp. 395–98
- Pregnancy: pp. 398–99
- Orgasm: pp. 405–6. 409–11
- BDSM: pp. 413–16