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biatheway 's review for:
The Second Sex
by Simone de Beauvoir
I finally managed to read The Second Sex and I’ll try to be brief as opposed to this book.
I rated it 4 stars because even though it’s such an important book, it’s a really difficult one too. It’s really dense and it’s hard to find a stone that wasn’t turned in the subject of feminism here. There is a reason people call it the feminist bible because it is.
Another reason I don’t rate it 5 stars is because even though it’s said to be ahead of its time, it’s behind ours so some sections might be dated. The book is divided in 2 parts, the first one focusing on human history and how women have been “the other” since the beginning of time. The second one focuses on the stages of a woman’s life and how she behaves and is perceived at these stages, all of this focusing on how she’s always “the other”.
This book made me want to set men on fire, made me feel called out, pointed out structures in society that explain the behaviour of every woman in my life. It’s so detailed and has so many examples of women in real life and fiction, there is no way to read this book without finding something to relate to your own life experiences, even if you are a man. I feel like I’ve learned a lot and it’s fascinating to see a book from 1949 still being so powerful in making you truly understand that “One isn’t born, but rather becomes a woman.” Everything is structured by society to make women be inferior, be the other, be the second sex.
What helped me keep my pace was the audiobook, at times it was really hard to focus and the audiobook made it better. I took 12 days to read the whole book but according to GoodReads I read 80% of it on a Saturday, so don’t trust my reading habits. I’d recommend taking your time if you’re going to try this one out. Download the audiobook, read it without pressure and take as many days, weeks, months or even years as you want, there’s no need to rush it, this is not a fun read, this is informative and important above everything else, and god knows we are not always in this kind of mood.
I rated it 4 stars because even though it’s such an important book, it’s a really difficult one too. It’s really dense and it’s hard to find a stone that wasn’t turned in the subject of feminism here. There is a reason people call it the feminist bible because it is.
Another reason I don’t rate it 5 stars is because even though it’s said to be ahead of its time, it’s behind ours so some sections might be dated. The book is divided in 2 parts, the first one focusing on human history and how women have been “the other” since the beginning of time. The second one focuses on the stages of a woman’s life and how she behaves and is perceived at these stages, all of this focusing on how she’s always “the other”.
This book made me want to set men on fire, made me feel called out, pointed out structures in society that explain the behaviour of every woman in my life. It’s so detailed and has so many examples of women in real life and fiction, there is no way to read this book without finding something to relate to your own life experiences, even if you are a man. I feel like I’ve learned a lot and it’s fascinating to see a book from 1949 still being so powerful in making you truly understand that “One isn’t born, but rather becomes a woman.” Everything is structured by society to make women be inferior, be the other, be the second sex.
What helped me keep my pace was the audiobook, at times it was really hard to focus and the audiobook made it better. I took 12 days to read the whole book but according to GoodReads I read 80% of it on a Saturday, so don’t trust my reading habits. I’d recommend taking your time if you’re going to try this one out. Download the audiobook, read it without pressure and take as many days, weeks, months or even years as you want, there’s no need to rush it, this is not a fun read, this is informative and important above everything else, and god knows we are not always in this kind of mood.