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joshlegere's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
kcrawfish's review against another edition
5.0
An answer to the despondent highschooler, sitting on the floor of my brothers room, asking why there were no great women philosophers as widely-known and referenced as Aristotle or Nietzche.
This is a tackling of the history of woman, her biology, body, advantages, limitations, disadvantages, the courtesan, the prostitute, the mother, the daughter, the adolescent, the asexual, the sexual, and where she’s sat in society, viewed as the ‘other’ and ‘object’ to the extent that it hurts both herself and men. Published in 1949, I like to think significant progress has been made, and yet I’m still floored by the relevance and meaning of this book.
Great texts on humanity sometimes are in a grey area, where mankind instead means “man”. This text on women positions women as a necessary equal rather than the exploited, necessarily parasitic being she becomes without freedom and the ability to be subject in her life rather than object.
I wish there were an updated chapter with modernity taken into context, to see how well de Beauvoir thought we were fairing.
I would also appreciate a general update of facts and statistics. In 1949, gynecologist believed 80% of patients had no physical defect when they came in with a complaint, which we know today to be the fault of the physician rather than a truth. Even until recently, male bodies were presented in med school as “the human body” and women were then taught as the deviation.
This is a tackling of the history of woman, her biology, body, advantages, limitations, disadvantages, the courtesan, the prostitute, the mother, the daughter, the adolescent, the asexual, the sexual, and where she’s sat in society, viewed as the ‘other’ and ‘object’ to the extent that it hurts both herself and men. Published in 1949, I like to think significant progress has been made, and yet I’m still floored by the relevance and meaning of this book.
Great texts on humanity sometimes are in a grey area, where mankind instead means “man”. This text on women positions women as a necessary equal rather than the exploited, necessarily parasitic being she becomes without freedom and the ability to be subject in her life rather than object.
I wish there were an updated chapter with modernity taken into context, to see how well de Beauvoir thought we were fairing.
I would also appreciate a general update of facts and statistics. In 1949, gynecologist believed 80% of patients had no physical defect when they came in with a complaint, which we know today to be the fault of the physician rather than a truth. Even until recently, male bodies were presented in med school as “the human body” and women were then taught as the deviation.
sksrenninger's review against another edition
5.0
I emerge slightly less mystified about existentialism and with a useful framework of gender to consider and interrogate. An incredibly dense book I'll need to come back to.
punkermangos's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Significant western philosopher on feminism