Beauvoir, The Second Sex – IV

Posted: Wed, Mar 5, 2025

Recap

Two interpretations of Beauvoir:

  • 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?
  • 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:

  1. First sex: pp. 395–98
  2. Pregnancy: pp. 398–99
  3. Orgasm: pp. 405–6. 409–11
  4. BDSM: pp. 413–16