The Feminist Philosophy of Simone De Beauvoir

Feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir covers a lot of ground in the excerpt presented from her book The Second Sex. He first subject addressed by Beauvoir is the definition of a woman - "One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should, what place they occupy in this world, and what place they should be" (Beauvoir 161). Beauvoir begins by stating that being female is not the complete definition of being a woman. Every woman, she states, must always define herself as such, while a man is never faced with the responsibility to declare his sex. The masculine sex is used as a sort of "default" for society, to the extent that "man" is used to refer to humans in general. The two sexes cannot be related to opposite electrical poles, because masculinity represents both the positive and neutral poles while femininity is confined to the negative pole. Furthermore, Beauvoir states, the state of being feminine contains a negative connotation: there is nothing out of the ordinary about being a man, while being a woman is automatically perceived as "peculiar" (Beauvoir 162). Backing up this observation, she quotes (male) thinkers such as Aristotle and St. Thomas who both describe women as "lacking", an "incidental being", and as "imperfect men" (Beauvoir 162). Thus, she concludes that humanity as a whole is dominantly male and defines women as "relative to him". The definition of woman is what man decides it is; and while men are independent of women the opposite is most definitely not true. Women are in this way completely dependent on men, and from this she contrives her first thesis - "He is the Subject, he is the Absolute - she is the Other" (Beauvoir 163).

Building on this thesis, Beauvoir explains the origin of this duality of "Self and Other". There has always been, she states, a primordial instinct driving mankind to divide everything into groupings of "us and them" (Beauvoir 163). While this did not always apply to the division of the sexes, it has been used since prehistory to divide natives and foreigners, believers and nonbelievers, lower class and upper class. Humanity, she explains, is not a fellowship based on friendliness - we have an inherent hostility toward all others. Because of this, the "others" as defined by one group make a reciprocal claim of exclusiveness against others. The one exception to this, Beauvoir claims, is the contrast between the sexes. Women have not contested the sovereignty of men, they have submitted wholly to them. (Beauvoir 163) Examining historical cases of total domination of one group over another, she cites different possible causes - superiority of numbers (in which the majority oppresses the minority), or superiority of strength (in which the strong suppress the weak). Numbers cannot be the case, because half of the world's population is always female (ensuring that they are never a minority). In the case of the weaker being subjugated by the stronger, there is almost always a historical event that serves as the root of the persecution - she cites the scattering of the Jews and the introduction of slavery as examples. No single historical event can be attributed as the cause of the subjugation of women, as they have been deemed inferior throughout history. The subjugation of women, she states, is not something that occurred (Beauvoir 164).

Because the inferiority of women may seem a "natural condition", Beauvoir states, many might believe it to be beyond the possibility of change. Beauvoir refutes this argument with the conclusion that even the "nature of things" is not immutably unchangeable - if women remain inferior, it is because they have never attempted to change their own situation (Beauvoir 164). One cause of this lack of action, she states, is a lack of unity - women as a whole, unlike the other oppressed groups or minorities, do not collectively identify themselves as a whole. Instead of identifying with other women, they identify with men (their husbands or fathers). Women have never organized a true movement for equality because of this lack of unity, and they have gained only what men were willing to grant. (Beauvoir 164). Thus, Beauvoir states, "they have taken nothing, they have only received" (Beauvoir 164). A further quality unique to the women's situation is the fact that they are inseparable from their subjectors - women cannot live in a world without men, "she is the Other in a totality of which the two components are necessary to one another" (Beauvoir 164). One belief Beauvoir refutes is that women could be emancipated through this dual necessity. Despite the fact that men need women for the fulfillment of their sexual desire and desire for offspring, women are no more "free" then slaves who are "needed" by their masters (Beauvoir 164).

So why, she asks, do women refuse to decline once and for all to be the Other? Because, she concludes, to do so would be to "renounce all of the advantages conferred upon them by their alliance with the superior caste" (Beauvoir 164). Men provide women not only with physical security but also with a purpose for their existence, and the comfort of this contrived purpose is often enough to keep women passive and unwilling to buck their "place in the world" as defined by men. Indeed, Beauvoir states, women are often "well pleased" with their role as the Other (Beauvoir 165).

Finally, she asks, how did this all begin? Like all dualities, she concludes, conflict inevitably rose and the winner (men) assumed the status as "Subject" and "Absolute". Women are generally believed to be "happy" with their static role, with being at rest. Beauvoir rejects this, however, and declares that true liberty can only come from "a continual reaching outward toward other liberties" (Beauvoir 165). Subjecting to this oppression, she claims, is a moral fault. She finally concludes that women as a whole must work toward liberty together, their destiny is not predefined by "physiological, psychological, or economic forces", and true liberty can only come from escaping the sphere assigned to them by men (Beauvoir 166).

Bibliography

Continental Philosophy: An Anthology, edited by William McNeil & Karen S Feldman (Malden, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1998)