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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.
hnobbe's review against another edition
4.0
One of the stars was for me because this the longest book I've read so far and the Wuthering Heights references.
bonnie3088's review against another edition
Read for a class. Tried to finish the whole thing. Just too much.
irreverentreader's review against another edition
4.0
Reading this in 2023, it's difficult to imagine just how groundbreaking this work must have been for its time. Though there were women who came before Simone de Beauvoir, such as Aphra Behn or Mary Wollstonecraft, de Beauvoir was a woman who said the quiet part out loud...and thoroughly.
While there is a lot to tackle in the unabridged version of The Second Sex, the parts that I found most interesting were those related to female typecasting throughout all forms of art (maiden, mother, crone, temptress, witch), her in-depth trek through the history of women as the inferior sex, and the critical look at the rearing and raising of girls versus boys and how this sets up the foundation of inequality for the female sex.
Reading this in a historical lens was also very rewarding. Luckily, we have come a far way from 1949, when this was written, and therefore much of the information, especially in psychology and sociology is outdated and no longer applicable. But there is still much that is the same, battles women have been fighting for these 70+ years and longer, and still, we have come up short. It is a good reminded of how much can be done in a relatively "short" amount of time when one looks at it through the scope of human history, but it is also a reminder that so much recently has stagnated in the drive to equality (equal wages, the right to abortion, relationship dynamics, etc).
I can see why people might be drawn to the abridged version. de Beauvoir is undoubtably verbose and often focuses on the same arguments in multiple places in her essays. Also, the long chapters debating Freud, the authors and philosophers of her time, and the very problematic chapters focusing lesbianism, all make a case for her writing to be packaged into a more digestible form.
I'm very much looking forward to reading Betty Friedan later this year to see how feminism evolved through the 1900s and how the thinking, research, and social backdrop changes. Either way, I think de Beauvoir is a must read to understand the foundations of feminism, the truly stifling history of women, and why it's so important that even now we don't take our foot off the gas pedal in striving for equality and fraternity with men.
While there is a lot to tackle in the unabridged version of The Second Sex, the parts that I found most interesting were those related to female typecasting throughout all forms of art (maiden, mother, crone, temptress, witch), her in-depth trek through the history of women as the inferior sex, and the critical look at the rearing and raising of girls versus boys and how this sets up the foundation of inequality for the female sex.
Reading this in a historical lens was also very rewarding. Luckily, we have come a far way from 1949, when this was written, and therefore much of the information, especially in psychology and sociology is outdated and no longer applicable. But there is still much that is the same, battles women have been fighting for these 70+ years and longer, and still, we have come up short. It is a good reminded of how much can be done in a relatively "short" amount of time when one looks at it through the scope of human history, but it is also a reminder that so much recently has stagnated in the drive to equality (equal wages, the right to abortion, relationship dynamics, etc).
I can see why people might be drawn to the abridged version. de Beauvoir is undoubtably verbose and often focuses on the same arguments in multiple places in her essays. Also, the long chapters debating Freud, the authors and philosophers of her time, and the very problematic chapters focusing lesbianism, all make a case for her writing to be packaged into a more digestible form.
I'm very much looking forward to reading Betty Friedan later this year to see how feminism evolved through the 1900s and how the thinking, research, and social backdrop changes. Either way, I think de Beauvoir is a must read to understand the foundations of feminism, the truly stifling history of women, and why it's so important that even now we don't take our foot off the gas pedal in striving for equality and fraternity with men.
taylorthiel's review against another edition
4.0
Listen I’ll be honest, I’ve actually been trying to get through this for a year. It is SO DENSE. and yes, a lot of it is outdated. However, take it for what it was worth when it was written. It’s a foundational feminist text for a reason.
But yes very dense, not always the most entertaining. But worth at least a skim.
But yes very dense, not always the most entertaining. But worth at least a skim.