Scan barcode
A review by irreverentreader
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
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way from 1949, when this was written, and therefore much of the information, especially in psychology and sociology is outdated and no longer applicable.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.