Simone de Beauvoir: The Independent Women

I would like to share my note on Simone de Beauvoir’s idea on “woman”, as mentioned by Grewal in this week reading (p.243). In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir draws a feminist movement in which it addresses the inequality of men and the emancipation of women from sexist oppression. She points out the challenges and difficulties of the modern female gender role. According to her, patriarchal system is a cause of woman oppression. “She is not viewed by society in the same way; the universe presents itself to her in a different perspective. The fact of being a woman today poses peculiar problems for an independent human individual.” (339). Beauvoir explores how woman and femininity are constructed by culture that is men centered by giving examples. “Her clothes were originally intended to consign her impotence, and they have remained unserviceable, easily ruined: stocking get runs, shoes get down at the heel, light-colored blouses ...” (341). “Tradition also requires even the single woman to give some attention to her lodgings.” (341). These examples confirm, first, woman's body is the barrier to doing self-actualization. Thus woman cannot expand their subjectivity dimension to the world outside and her environment. Second, this culture has been socialized and internalized through social institutions such as families, communities, and also state.

Therefore, according to de Beauvoir, there are two main levels in order to emancipate woman: the level of thought and practice. At the level of thought, women's bodies should be exempt from the labels that are affixed by patriarchal culture and constraint her to the process of transcendence. Body, belonging to both women and men, is the situation; body is the subject of dialogue and interpretation between the number of values ​​offered by the social construction and the values ​​chosen autonomously (357). In addition, de Beauvoir also suggests changing the pattern of relationships between man and woman from the bondage of biological and functional to be humane and ethical relationship that is openly in the spirit of friendship and generosity (356). At the level of practice, de Beauvoir proposes the importance of economic independence as a door opener for the liberation (338).

Souces:
Simone de Beauvoir, "The Independent Women" in Simon During (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader, 1st edition
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