Essay Example on Simone de Beauvoir: Leading Existentialist Theorist & Feminist

Introduction

Simone de Beauvoir was among the most well-known French existentialist theorists, as wells as a writer who produced many writings about politics, ethics, fiction, and feminism. In regard to feminism, Beauvoir, through her book The Second Sex, produced an articulate attack on the fact that through history, women have been relegated to the sphere of "immanence" as well as a passive acceptance of the roles assigned to them by society. Beauvoir stresses responsibility, freedom in addition to ambiguity, which permeates all her works. Accordingly, the most influential and famous philosophical works by Beauvoir is The Second Sex (1949), where she heralds a feminist revolution that stands until now as the present-day text in the study of women's oppression as well as liberation.

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Indeed, the book that is considered a landmark for Simone de Beauvoir is The Second Sex, which has been so much inspirational to the activities practiced by liberation movements by women (Garry & Pearsall, 2015). In light of this statement, the essence of this paper is to shed more light regarding the critical elements of feminism that were advanced by Simone de Beauvoir such as liberation through socialist struggle, need for a woman's movement, no separate women's nature, social transformation and a return of enslavement. In addition to that, this paper will discuss the relevance of Simone de Beauvoir to contemporary society.

Emancipation through Socialist Fight

With regard to The Second Sex, which was printed in the late 1940s, Simone de Beauvoir downplays her associate feminists based on how she understood it. Similar to many other associates, Simone de Beauvoir had a belief that in order to resolve the problems of the society, it could only be attained through class struggle as well as socialist development and not movements by women. For instance, when the 1960s feminists advanced her, Simone de Beauvoir did not gust to join their basis enthusiastically. Even with the spread of reinvention and the resurgence of radicalism in the 1960s, Simone de Beauvoir believed that Marxist development did not leave women better off in China and USSR as compared to those in the capitalist nations (Hekman, 2015). Certainly, Russian women held government positions and jobs, but they were still unfailingly in charge of taking care of children and attending housework at the end of the workday. In this sense, Simone de Beauvoir mirrored and recognised the problems that were being debated by feminists in the US regarding the roles of women and homemakers. This is shown through her quote, "it is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. Nonetheless, the real question is not why she should reject them, but the problem is to understand why she should accept them" (Garry & Pearsall, 2015).

Accordingly, the key theme of The Second Sex is based on the concept that women have been held in the relation of long-standing oppression to men through their relegation of being men's "others." Simone de Beauvoir agrees with Sartrean and Hegelien's philosophy by stating that the self needs otherness to define itself as a subject, a group of the otherness. As a result, it is necessary with regard to the self as a self. Nevertheless, the movement of self-understanding through alterity is supposed to be reciprocal whereby the self is often as much objectified by its other as the self that a woman is consistently defined as the other by a man who takes on the role of the Self.

With regard to Simone de Beauvoir argument, it reveals that the existence of human is an ambiguous interplay between immanence and transcendence. However, men enjoy the privilege to express transcendence through projects while women have been pushed into the uncreative and repetitive life of immanence. Consequently, Simone de Beauvoir is proposing the investigation on how this profoundly unequal correlation has emerged in addition to the kind of attitudes, structures as well as presuppositions that continue to maintain its social power (Mookherjee, 2016).

The need for women's movement

With regard to an interview in 1972 that took place between a German journalist and Alice Schwarder, who is a feminist, Simone de Beauvoir stated that she was indeed a feminist. Simone de Beauvoir noted that her earlier denial of women's movement was a flaw of the book The Second Sex. In the interview, Simone de Beauvoir stated that the most significant aspect that women can do in their lives is work to become independent. Accordingly, even though work is neither perfect nor the solution to all the problems that face them, but it is the "first condition towards women independence" (Bettin & Mills, 2018). While Simone de Beauvoir lived in France, she kept on reading as well as examining writings by prominent feminist theorists from the United States such as Kate Millett and Shulamith Firestone. In addition, Simone de Beauvoir, at the same time, theorised that women could not utterly be free-thinkers until the patriarchal system society was overthrown. Indeed, women need to liberate themselves individually. Nonetheless, they similarly require to fight in cohesion with those in politics and the employed classes.

Inexistence of a separate women's nature

Toward the mid-1970s, Simone de Beauvoir was discouraged by the notion of an isolated mystical "feminine nature," which was considered a novel age perception that appeared to be attaining fame. Simone de Beauvoir stated that "just as she does not believe that women are low-grade to men by nature, nor does she had trust that women are their ordinary superiors as well." In the book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir had eminently detailed that "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." In this sense, women are believed to be dissimilar from their men counterparts since they are taught how to socialize and be. Indeed, this is a serious matter. According to Simone de Beauvoir, this was only another approach manner for men to control women by telling them that they are better in terms of their spiritual, and cosmic "eternal feminine." Their men counterparts control women by being kept away from men's knowledge and men's concerns such as power, careers, and work.

Through Simone de Beauvoir addressing the inequality that exists between men and women, it was a way of demanding a woman's emancipation as well as reclamation of her selfhood. Certainly, Simone de Beauvoir requires that women should be allowed to transcend through their projects with all the risks, dangers as well as uncertainties that they encompass. In this light, contemporary women pride their selves by taking actions, creating, working, thinking on the same terms as their men counterparts. Accordingly, instead of seeking to criticise women, Simone de Beauvoir argued that women should be declared equal.

Therefore, so as to ensure there is equality between men and women, Simone de Beauvoir proposes changes within the social structures such as legal abortion for women, equal education, and economic freedom for women and women interdependence from men. To realise this type of independence, Simone de Beauvoir had a belief that women could immensely benefit from non-exploitative and non-alienating and productive level of labour. Based on this sense, Simone de Beauvoir believed that women would tremendously benefit from work.

Transformation of society

As a result of the Women's Liberation Movement, it assisted Simone de Beauvoir to get much more accustomed to the time of prejudice experienced by women. Nonetheless, Simone de Beauvoir did not view this as of benefit to women by not doing anything to the "men's ways." The feminist movement has prompted modifications in Western society, such as better admittance to education, the right for women to make an independent decision about pregnancy through access to abortion and contraceptives.

The reappearance of enslavement

The perception of a "woman's nature" is regarded as further oppression by Simone de Beauvoir. De Beauvoir refers to motherhood as a way of turning women into slaves. According to Simone de Beauvoir, this is not supposed to be manner; nonetheless, it ordinarily ended up in this manner in society since women were supposed to worry themselves with their divine nature. Women have been forced to concentrate on motherhood as well as femininity other than technology, politics in addition to things outside family and home. This is sown through Simone de Beauvoir's argument that "given that one can hardly tell women that washing up saucepans is their divine mission, they are told that bring up children is their divine mission" (Bettin & Mills, 2018). Based on this statement, this is a way of rendering women as second-class individuals.

The relevance of Simone de Beauvoir to the Contemporary Society

As a feminist, Simone de Beauvoir and other feminists have played a significant role in transforming the world into a happier place for women in a number of ways.

Feminist has brought women out of the household: Women movement has brought many women out of the household into the workplace. Women of color that were already working have been joined by housewives in the labour force, which has particularly transformed the economy (Allen, 2018). These transformations have been catalysed by feminism, something that has closed the wage gap between women and their men counterparts.

Rape culture has been called out: Research has shown that "date rape" is not something which feminists made up (Pilcher, 2017). To the contrary to various intolerably incorrect reports put forth by purists, it is due to radicalism that spearheaded the removal of some of the stigma that surrounds sexual assault. As a result, this has given fighters the semantic to label their sensual trauma. Studies have found that one in five women is likely to be involved in an attempted or raped in their lifetime.

Indeed, this is a problem of widespread proponents that needs to be addressed and not blaming feminist and sweeping it under the carpet for being frantic. With the increase in the number of young feminists, they have started to take proactive roles in the fight against vehemence. For instance, the engagement on college campuses to end rape in addition to the Sluthwalk campaigns has shown various ways through which young women are striving to protect their bodies and creating safe surroundings to learn as well as thrive.

Feminists are currently using inline feminism to give those marginalised a voice: Online feminism is tasked with the responsibility for most of the most recent high profile movement victories. For instance, the criticism against Komen underpinning for dragging Planned Parenthood funding for political motives forced the pull-down of anti-choice ads in Manhattan. In addition, the response to Rush Limbaugh's sexist attacks on Sandra Fluke is a feminism that is still alive. In addition to that, feminist blogs are the most famous across the internet in addition to stories regarding women as well as the concerns that influence their lives. Accordingly, such platforms are creating significant space for conversations with regard to discrimination. Moreover, online avenues have enabled individuals living on the borders to get the right audience both locally and abroad.

Feminism has pushed pop culture icons towards joining the fight against women oppression. For instance, in the recent past, Beyonce openly branded herself as a feminist in her album. Across the world, feminists celebrated at the prospect to make known to young women the fight against chauvinism. With this conventional entry point, it has become even more critical for the marginalised women being opened up by famous artists in the past such as Queen Latifah, Mc Lyte, Modona, and Cindy Lauper. Indeed, these...