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heloise_lifeinbooks 's review for:
The Second Sex
by Simone de Beauvoir
informative
slow-paced
Happy to have finally read this book! Due to the dense writing, tiny font, and constant footnotes I really took my time with this one, but it worked out in a cool way where a lot of the other books I was reading at the same time could be somehow related to the 2nd sex and that made the reading experience much better.
Interesting book because it’s first or 2nd wave feminism, and while there is A LOT of interesting information that I didn’t know (especially in the first part of book 1), it’s equally interesting to compare how some of beauvoir’s thoughts and beliefs compare to current feminist thought. There were several moments in the 2nd book where I found some of her assumptions and statements very misogynistic and dismissive, and yet they were extremely progressive at the time.
Beauvoir’s constant assertion that all of her conclusions on the “female state” are a result of social contextualizing and not final pronouncements on the abilities, desires, and capabilities of women helps cut through some of the misogynistic statements, and yet as a fully modern feminist woman, I was still shocked at some of her conclusions.
This book was definitely chock full of interesting information, and I think it’s a great base to start learning a lot of feminist theory and ideas. I’d love to have read this with a book club tbh.
Interesting book because it’s first or 2nd wave feminism, and while there is A LOT of interesting information that I didn’t know (especially in the first part of book 1), it’s equally interesting to compare how some of beauvoir’s thoughts and beliefs compare to current feminist thought. There were several moments in the 2nd book where I found some of her assumptions and statements very misogynistic and dismissive, and yet they were extremely progressive at the time.
Beauvoir’s constant assertion that all of her conclusions on the “female state” are a result of social contextualizing and not final pronouncements on the abilities, desires, and capabilities of women helps cut through some of the misogynistic statements, and yet as a fully modern feminist woman, I was still shocked at some of her conclusions.
This book was definitely chock full of interesting information, and I think it’s a great base to start learning a lot of feminist theory and ideas. I’d love to have read this with a book club tbh.