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abbsentminded's review against another edition
5.0
American feminism is cool I guess, but like. . . Simone de Beauvoir is next level. The Second Sex is pretty much exactly what you'd expect when a top-notch existentialist (way cooler than Sartre) launches into a treatise on "what it is to be woman."
She's the single most well read person I've ever heard of, and uses countless references to sociology, psychology, philosophy, and literature to analyze "the second sex" from every angle. The result is both rigorously derived and deeply personal.
My husband actually read this book with me. It was interesting for him of course, and interesting for me to read not only through myself but through him. Beauvoir masterfully articulates miseries and humiliations that my body has always known. Many men have never thought about these thing, but they should know; as Beauvoir points out again and again, absolute fraternity and equality between the two will liberate both in ways unimaginable.
She's the single most well read person I've ever heard of, and uses countless references to sociology, psychology, philosophy, and literature to analyze "the second sex" from every angle. The result is both rigorously derived and deeply personal.
My husband actually read this book with me. It was interesting for him of course, and interesting for me to read not only through myself but through him. Beauvoir masterfully articulates miseries and humiliations that my body has always known. Many men have never thought about these thing, but they should know; as Beauvoir points out again and again, absolute fraternity and equality between the two will liberate both in ways unimaginable.
maryehavens's review against another edition
1.0
I'm just not in the right frame of mind to read a carefully dissected, 800+ page treatise on woman's place in society. Maybe Natalie Angier's Woman: An Intimate Geography will be a condensed version of this? Sorry feminists, this one has to bow out. :/
glindaaa's review against another edition
The reason I did not finish this book is that it needs to go back to the library and there is a whole waiting list before I can borrow it again (and I am not even sure if I am still at the University at that point). But de Beauvoir is very thorough with her work, the explanations she gives is not based on a loose sentence, she can go on and on and on for hours. This sometimes makes me hop, skip, jump a paragraph and continue to read. It is not a bad thing, it is a bad thing when you do not have all the time to read it.
But I am glad I made a start at the book, I read (with the skipping in mind) the first section completely and it was very interesting and I definitely liked it. Even if sometimes I thought she went on for a long time. The thing what upsets me, which happens basically all the time, is when a book this old writes about issues that still are not solved. How much longer will it take before there is equal payment to mention something of the smallest things that should be able to be fixed with a flick of the wrist. Why does the world still not work that way?
Even if de Beauvoir writes a lot, what might have been able to put in shorter paragraphs, it wasn't that it was bothering. I like her writing style and to me it actually came over as easy, stating facts, (or her facts, considering some translator notes) and just going strong, making it a wholesome story and not just parts that cut off one after another and you forever wondering what the point of that piece was. It is build up very nicely (and thus I assumed translated very well) to keep it going.
But I am glad I made a start at the book, I read (with the skipping in mind) the first section completely and it was very interesting and I definitely liked it. Even if sometimes I thought she went on for a long time. The thing what upsets me, which happens basically all the time, is when a book this old writes about issues that still are not solved. How much longer will it take before there is equal payment to mention something of the smallest things that should be able to be fixed with a flick of the wrist. Why does the world still not work that way?
Even if de Beauvoir writes a lot, what might have been able to put in shorter paragraphs, it wasn't that it was bothering. I like her writing style and to me it actually came over as easy, stating facts, (or her facts, considering some translator notes) and just going strong, making it a wholesome story and not just parts that cut off one after another and you forever wondering what the point of that piece was. It is build up very nicely (and thus I assumed translated very well) to keep it going.
pero_tefi's review against another edition
3.0
Este es un texto histórico y necesario para la humanidad, y en específico, para la mujer. Simone es de las primeras teoristas del feminismo, y plantea la idea de que la “naturaleza” femenina no es naturaleza sino construcción social. Me parece que incluso para el tiempo que ha pasado desde la escritura del texto, todavía haya tantas cosas que no han cambiado.
Sin embargo, luego del primer tercio del libro, el texto se volvió tedioso. El estilo de escritura que anteriormente me había interesado y que tenía un carácter moderno se volvió repetitivo. El análisis de Beauvoir de repente empezó a tener un tono de “not like other girls”, y me percaté que la gran generalización de la experiencia de la mujer ignoraba factores importantes, tales como las diferencias fundamentales entre culturas y las diferencias de experiencias de clases. Para este último si hubo un intento, pero para el primero note que su forma de concebir la sociedad, sin importar de donde fuera, se mantenía dentro de los lentes de la sociedad francesa\europea. Asimismo, los ejemplos utilizados vienen en su mayoría de investigaciones guiadas por hombres, y mantiene los resultados de estos investigadores en vez de dudar su procedencia. Estas teorías psicológicas de hombres solo toman en cuenta los peores casos de la mujer, las que llegan a estos manicomios, y Beauvoir los presenta como una explicación de la psiquis de la comunidad femenina completa.
Igual, al fin, AL FIN, derrote este libro.
Sin embargo, luego del primer tercio del libro, el texto se volvió tedioso. El estilo de escritura que anteriormente me había interesado y que tenía un carácter moderno se volvió repetitivo. El análisis de Beauvoir de repente empezó a tener un tono de “not like other girls”, y me percaté que la gran generalización de la experiencia de la mujer ignoraba factores importantes, tales como las diferencias fundamentales entre culturas y las diferencias de experiencias de clases. Para este último si hubo un intento, pero para el primero note que su forma de concebir la sociedad, sin importar de donde fuera, se mantenía dentro de los lentes de la sociedad francesa\europea. Asimismo, los ejemplos utilizados vienen en su mayoría de investigaciones guiadas por hombres, y mantiene los resultados de estos investigadores en vez de dudar su procedencia. Estas teorías psicológicas de hombres solo toman en cuenta los peores casos de la mujer, las que llegan a estos manicomios, y Beauvoir los presenta como una explicación de la psiquis de la comunidad femenina completa.
Igual, al fin, AL FIN, derrote este libro.