May 28, 2004 10:07 AM
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(Updated May 28, 2004 10:07 AM)
Le Deuxième Sexe (THE SECOND SEX) Author: - Simone de Beauvoir Translated from French to English by: - Jonathan Cape (1953) Published first in French in 1949 by Gallimard Published in English by David Campbell Publishers Ltd. Simone de Beauvoir?s The Second Sex (Le Deuxième Sexe) is one of the most interesting pieces of literature on women, comprehensively providing an in-depth view of women?s lives and their position in society.
Throughout the book the author analyses why woman is designated to the position of the ?Other? in society. Is it because of her anatomical structure as evident in various species of animals and gradually increases as one climbs the species? hierarchy or perhaps it is because of the fact that women through the ages have gradually slipped into this role of the ?Other? resulting in the creation of the male-dominated society or rather, male-centric society that we see today and have more or less come to terms with. The author thankfully does not indulge in the stereotypical male bashing and accusations that have become a staple of feminist literature post World War II.
Instead she explores womanhood like a thorough researcher. Instead she prefers to take the reader through the life of a woman from her confused childhood when she is conditioned to behave like a woman as she still tries to figure out why she shouldn?t urinate while standing like the boys of her age, to a teenager ridden by problems of menstruation and identity, excessive sentimentality, homosexual fervors and platonic crushes of adolescent girls ?with all their train of silliness and frivolity?, to a submissive wife and then a patient and dutiful mother in coherence to the norms of the society.
The reader is often taken aback by de Beauvoir?s analysis of the human mind, that to of a woman at various stages of life with so many dimensions to her thought and character. Simone de Beauvoir ponders over the fact that women admittedly prefer to take up the more submissive role in the society. Though women have prominent roles in the society as the mother, the sister, the wife and the wh-ore as evident throughout history as one analyses their roles during the Egyptian, the Greek, the Roman and the ancient Chinese and Indian civilizations, the main law-makers were men who made laws for the society on the whole, which definitely were binding on the women.
On one hand the woman was worshipped as in the Indian and Egyptian civilizations, while on the other hand she was reduced to a slave, fulfilling man?s desires and her obligation to reproduce so that humankind would increase in populace. ?Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior: she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male?s superiority. She sets about mutilating, dominating man, she contradicts him, she denies his truth and his values. But in doing this she is not only defending herself; it was neither a changeless essence nor a mistaken choice that doomed her to immanence, to inferiority.
They were imposed on her.? Women might not consider themselves to be ?The Second Sex? post women?s liberalization movements and bra-burning activism, but de Beauvoir highlights the fact that women are psychologically conditioned to turn to men during times of crisis. As man refuses to accept his companion as an equal in any concrete way, the woman replies to his lack of confidence in her by assuming an aggressive attitude. ?The ?feminine? woman in making herself prey tries to reduce man, also, to her carnal passivity?enchaining him in a desire that she arouses in him in submissively making herself a thing.
The ?emancipated? woman, on the contrary, wants to be active, a taker, and refuses the passivity man means to impose on her?. But the ?modern? woman accepts masculine values: she prides herself thinking, taking action, working, creating, on the same terms as men; instead seeking to disparage them, she declares herself equal.? Simone de Beauvoir?s Le Deuxième Sexe or The Second Sex is one of the best works in feminist literature.
After an in-depth analysis of the bridge between man and woman and their power-relations in society, de Beauvoir ends this book with a quote from Marx: - ?The direct, natural, necessary relation of human creatures is the relation of man to woman.? The book is incisive, reasoning out why woman has attained the position of the ?Other? in society. However, the language used and the cross-referencing to the various works of noted philosophers of the time, impede the understanding of the content by a reader unaccustomed to such language and the references.
Simone de Beauvoir admits that the renowned Jean-Paul Satre influences most of her ideas. Throughout the book she does not describe any of Satre?s works. She fails to define the nature of influence that Satre works had on her, except for a subtle implication in the Introduction to this book, while she avidly describes and justifies the status of women in society by using the historical references of various authors from Aristotle to D. H. Lawrence. .
Simone de Beauvoir fails on these counts but the body of research work that she has conducted in order to present this account on women manages to be much more than impressive. It really hits one hard in the face and makes one introspective and makes the reader take a trip down the memory lane, as if it?s one?s memoir. The words may be new to the reader and the references vague, but the concepts are not; one just has to look around to figure it out.
One reader is of the opinion, ?Simone de Beauvoir?s research is often like reading a National Geographic magazine about women, or that of a cultural anthropologist's account.? For those who say they cannot understand women this is the book that should get them started, irrespective of their gender and sexual orientations.
