Existentialism

Simone de Beauvoir

Existentialism: de Beauvoir

• Why look at de Beauvoir?

–Philosophy is dominated by men

– Feminist philosophy is a 20th century development

De Beauvoir’s Biography– Both in January 1908 in Paris– Attended Catholic schools– Saw mother doing menial work in WW2– Met Sartre at Catholic school in Sorbonne, France– Received her degrees in philosophy in 1929– Very active in the French resistance as was Sartre– Spent her life writing long studies and novels– Important works: The Ethics of Ambiguity (1946);The Second Sex

(1949)– She and Sartre were together 51 years; never married; never lived

together– Always called herself an existentialist and never a feminist– Didn’t call herself a philosopher but Sartre thought she was a better

philosopher than he

De Beauvoir’s and Feminist Philosophy

(1) documented the oppression of women through

(2) Literature(3) Science(4) Psychology(5) History(6) Anthropology

(2) developed a feminist theory of what it means to be an

embodied thing

and in particular,

a gendered body

De Beauvoir argues that things such as

embodiment and genderness

are essential existential realities

Two significant claims as part of her theory of gender:

1.Gender is not a natural fact but an historical idea.

2.One is not born a woman, but rather becomes a woman.

De Beauvoir, “sex” and “gender”

Sex refers only to the biological/physiological differences between men and women beforethese differences are interpretedand given significance within acultural context.

Gender refers to the differences between the sexes as understood, enacted and practiced within the lives of individuals in a certain cultural setting or context.

To understand something is not only to understand its physical properties,

but also the role it plays in people’s lives,

How they create plansRelate to one anotherTheir desires and attitudes How they view reality

De Beauvoir and Gender as a Cultural Construct

Sex is not a cultural invention and to say so would obviously be absurd.

Gender is a cultural invention

It is society or culture that determines what these biological differences signify

and what they mean in terms of what a person is, how he or she should feel, react, plan, etc.

To understand what it is to have a body is also to understand what it is to have a gender.

De Beauvoir therefore argues that one becomes a particular gender (woman or a man).

De Beauvoir on “Becoming a Woman”

(1) Problems with this expression

• Who is it that becomes a woman / female? • Is there some self that exists prior to a woman

(female) and chooses it?• In what sense does a person really become a

woman (female) if we are labeled female (sex) at birth and not able really to choose anything?

(2) Gender (not sex) is active

• Gender is a choice• Each of us chooses to live as a certain gender• I “am” not a certain gender, but “become”

that a gender.• This is an ongoing process, • Each moment I live that gender thru my

choices and actions.• It is not passive, or not something that

“happens” to us.• Gender is something we do, not something we

are.

(3) Cultural Constraints on Gender

• We can’t just become any gender we want when we want.

• Therefore I can’t just choose to be a woman. Society will not allow this.

• This is a strong part of our situation

• We do not pre-exist our gender

• We are born to a certain gender.

• We do not really have a choice to be a different gender.

• We cannot choose what genders to be at will.

• But we still choose our gender by living it in the precise ways that we do.

Existentialism: de Beauvoir

(1) We need to re-think gender boundaries.

There are aspects to the gender situation I can change.

I can change what masculinity is through how I act.

By acting in a way different than traditional genders are, I play a part in changing what gender is.

(2) Over time, by acting certain ways, we can change gender, and even create a new gender categories (e.g. femme, butch, etc)

Trans-genderTrans-sexualBi-sexual

(3) A big part of it is changing vocabulary.

“masculine” and “feminine” need to be more fluid.

And we can eventually change the significance of gender and sex in society.