Before The Women's Liberation Movement By Simone De Beauvoir
I. Intro Paragraph
Imagine having little to no access to a higher education, being abused by your significant other and having nowhere to go, being expected to stay home all day, and have children, or if you were able to work, imagine making less money than another for doing the same work. This was the life and these were the challenges for women before the Women’s Liberation Movement. Because of Simone de Beauvoir’s: The Second Sex, and many other influences, women were empowered to rise above these expectations and inequalities and fight for their rights
II. Background: The Women’s Liberation Movement in America was an empowering movement for women, bringing newfound freedoms and a new sense of independence.
A. The Women’s Liberation Movement …show more content…
in America lasted from approximately 1939 to 1989, beginning during World War II.
B.
Women were seeking basic civil rights, such as economic equality, proper treatment for victims of domestic violence and abuse, and better, easier access to academic opportunities such as college.
a. Women made only 60 cents for every dollar a man made at the time.
C. The women of the Women’s Liberation Movement fought for other more controversial issues in addition to basic civil rights.
a. Women were fighting for access to birth control and other “family planning” methods, greater acceptance and equal rights for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, and more representation and recognition for women of color both in pop culture and our average lives.
D. Besides Civil and human rights, the Women’s Liberation Movement was about changing the way women are viewed by society, to stop the constant objectification of women, and to change the idea that women cannot have a career and be a mother.
a. There was an increase in the number of women with careers in the 1960s, due to this idea and this movement.
III. Background: The Women’s Liberation Movement in France, while liberating, did not have quite the same amount of fiery passion as the movement in America.
A. French women did not get the right to vote and run for office until …show more content…
1944.
a. This was mainly due to movements in other countries, such as England and America.
b. Women were bot given formal equal rights under the law until 1946.
B. The main Women’s Liberation Movement did not begin unitl approximately 1968, when many protest groups were born.
a. These groups were fighting for abortion and contraception rights, and were trying to raise awareness for rape and domestic violence issues.
C. The movement, however, was mainly limited to women of “elite” status, because most middle-class French women were focusing on making sense of their own lives, instead of the role of women.
IV. Arguement: Simone de Beauvoir’s upbringing, life, and other works shaped her view on philosophy and feminism which eventually led to her writing of The Second Sex.
A. Simone de Beauvoir, born Simone Lucie-Ernstine-Marie-Bertrard, was born in 1908, Paris.
B. She was raised in a “strict” Roman Catholic family, but decided she was an atheist at a young age arguing “that religion was only a method of avoiding the truth.”
C. At the age of 21, de Beuvoir met Jean-Paul Sarte, a famous existentialist philosopher, who helped her philosophical views.
a. Although Sarte had a great influence on de Beauvoir, many of her concepts and ideas were and are her own
D. Analysis: This influence, from her early rebellion against her religion to her long-term partnership, led to Simone de Beauvoir to study philosophy with a deep connection to women’s rights, and eventually led to her writing The Second Sex.
V. Arguement: The concept of “The Other” is an existentialist concept, used in this case to define women, that changed the way men view women and women view themselves in relationship to man in The Second Sex.
A. The term “The Other” is a term used in existentialist philosophy, and in The Second Sex is used to describe the relationship between man and woman.
a. In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir explained that “the category of Other is as old as consciousness itself.”
b. In the relationship, “The Subject is the absolute. The Other is inessential.”
c. As explained in The Second Sex, man sees himself as ‘self’, and woman as ‘other’, similar examples of this relationship from de Beauvoir include the young and the elderly, and colonizers with the native people.
B. Because men have identified themselves as the Subject, “the absolute human time,” man used this standard of human to measure women, identifying them as inferior.
a. Man considers himself “as the norm, because woman poses a threat to male selfhood, thus woman is constructed as Other and deviant, not self, and exists only in relation to man.”
C. After explaining this, de Beauvoir uses this newfound understanding to empower women, telling women to “refuse her status as other.”
a. She tells women that in order to do so, women should be working and being independent, women should be “creative, intellectual, and sexually empowered,” and de Beauvoir tells women to fight for social change.
D. Analysis: By introducing this concept to women, de Beauvoir is calling on women to fight for social change, both directly and indirectly.
a. Not only did the concept of The Other outrage women, it made women aware of the situation.
b. Women were now doing as de Beauvoir said, there was an increase in women working and being independent , women were fighting for education, helping them to be “creative and intellectual”, and women were fighting for access to birth control, giving women sexual empowerment.
c. Almost the entire Women’s Liberation Movement could be seen as refusing to be The Other, and knowingly or not, all of the feminists during the Women’s Liberation Movement were taking Simone de Beauvoir’s advice.
VI. Arguement: The famous sentence “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”, is one of the most important and impactful quotes to have influenced the Women’s Liberation Movement.
A. Meaning of the quote and analysis: This quote dives deep into the roots of femininity, and helps to answer one of main questions posed by the book: “What is a woman?”
a. De Beauvoir describes that “civilization as a whole” is what makes a woman a woman in our society, not any biological or physical differences to the man.
b. This quote has said that nowadays, in order to be a woman, one must be feminine and one must behave in the way women are supposed to behave.
c. Some have found this quote to be one of the first descriptions on the sex/gender divide.
B. Influence and Importance of the quote: This quote opens the second volume of The Second Sex, and is arguably the most important quote in this book.
a. This quote has been referred to as “no less of a landmark, of no less historical import, than Neil Armstrong’s assessment of the significance of his first steps on the moon. ”
b. These words, are said to be “the most famous ever penned in the service of liberating human beings from the constraints imposed on them, or that they impose on themselves through, sex difference.”
i. Women were freed from the pressure to be feminine, and now women would not let this idea of femininity define who they are.
c. It has changed how women understand their role in society, themselves and their place in relationships, and the “construction of gender.”
VII. Arguement: The English translation of The Second Sex was not nearly equivalent to the masterpiece that was The Second Sex in French, but nonetheless it empowered women across America to fight for their rights.
A. The original 1953 translation of The Second was an extremely abridged version that did not fully convey the ideas of the book and excluded many philosophical terms.
a. The translation was so “deplorable” that it led to an area of Beauvoir studies “documenting just how bad it is.”
b. It was so abridged that it withheld 15% of the original text.
c. The translation was done by a zoologist, with little philosophical background also.
B. The Second Sex was one of the first books to combine philosophy and feminism, and is considered “one of the foundational texts” in all three subjects.
a. Before The Second Sex, little philosophy on women had been written with the perspective from a feminist , allowing the book to have a great influence on feminist theory.
C. The Second Sex put how women felt into words, and got those words published, “this declaration of oppression” paved the way for the raising of awareness that led to the women’s liberation movement.
a. Because women had felt this way for quite a long time, the book only “validated women’s experiences of injustice.”
b. It also influenced the movement because it “gave us the vocabulary for analyzing the social constructions of femininity and a method for critiquing these constructions.”
i. Meaning that the book helped us to understand and analyze what was already being experienced by women everywhere, and to articulate it. ii. This led to a greater understanding and awareness.
D. The Second Sex was “considered among scholars to be among the definitive declarations of women’s independence”.
VIII. Counterargument: Although The Second Sex had a tremendous impact on The Women’s Liberation Movement in America, it did not have quite the impact on France, where de Beauvoir herself was from, adding to the unpopularity the book had amongst some feminists.
A. During the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement in France, a number of feminists were not reading and “ignoring” The Second Sex.
a.
Therefore, one could argue that The Second Sex did not have very much influence on The Women’s Liberation movement, if the book had little influence on it’s own country.
B. In addition to her slight lack of interest in France, some France feminists even dislike her type of feminism, some going to far as to say she is not a feminist.
a. A book written by Suzanne Lilar in 1970 stated “it is a high time to loose respect for Simone de Beauvoir, it is a high time to desecrate The Second Sex.”
b. Tristan and Annie de Plsan responded to Simone de Beauvoir’s activism at a Paris meeting in 1970 with “We don’t want that kind of feminism here.”
c. In addition to the foul remarks made by these feminists, de Beauvoir was called “every infamy; frigid, priapic, neurotic, she had trampled underfoot everything that was good in the world.”
C. Analysis
a. With all of this negativity towards her image and the disregards for The Second Sex, the argument that Simone de Beauvoir did not have a great impact of The Women’s Liberation Movement is well founded.
b. Although the counter-argument does raise a good point, ultimately de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex had a great impact on The Women’s Liberation Movement in America, and her views and philosophy were read by women all across America in the 1960s and 70s.
IX.
Conclusion
Imagine having little to no access to a higher education, being abused by your significant other and having nowhere to go, being expected to stay home all day, and have children, or if you were able to work, imagine making less money than another for doing the same work. This was the life and these were the challenges for women before the Women’s Liberation Movement. Because of Simone de Beauvoir’s: The Second Sex, and many other influences, women were empowered to rise above these expectations and inequalities and fight for their rights
II. Background: The Women’s Liberation Movement in America was an empowering movement for women, bringing newfound freedoms and a new sense of independence.
A. The Women’s Liberation Movement …show more content…
in America lasted from approximately 1939 to 1989, beginning during World War II.
B.
Women were seeking basic civil rights, such as economic equality, proper treatment for victims of domestic violence and abuse, and better, easier access to academic opportunities such as college.
a. Women made only 60 cents for every dollar a man made at the time.
C. The women of the Women’s Liberation Movement fought for other more controversial issues in addition to basic civil rights.
a. Women were fighting for access to birth control and other “family planning” methods, greater acceptance and equal rights for lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, and more representation and recognition for women of color both in pop culture and our average lives.
D. Besides Civil and human rights, the Women’s Liberation Movement was about changing the way women are viewed by society, to stop the constant objectification of women, and to change the idea that women cannot have a career and be a mother.
a. There was an increase in the number of women with careers in the 1960s, due to this idea and this movement.
III. Background: The Women’s Liberation Movement in France, while liberating, did not have quite the same amount of fiery passion as the movement in America.
A. French women did not get the right to vote and run for office until …show more content…
1944.
a. This was mainly due to movements in other countries, such as England and America.
b. Women were bot given formal equal rights under the law until 1946.
B. The main Women’s Liberation Movement did not begin unitl approximately 1968, when many protest groups were born.
a. These groups were fighting for abortion and contraception rights, and were trying to raise awareness for rape and domestic violence issues.
C. The movement, however, was mainly limited to women of “elite” status, because most middle-class French women were focusing on making sense of their own lives, instead of the role of women.
IV. Arguement: Simone de Beauvoir’s upbringing, life, and other works shaped her view on philosophy and feminism which eventually led to her writing of The Second Sex.
A. Simone de Beauvoir, born Simone Lucie-Ernstine-Marie-Bertrard, was born in 1908, Paris.
B. She was raised in a “strict” Roman Catholic family, but decided she was an atheist at a young age arguing “that religion was only a method of avoiding the truth.”
C. At the age of 21, de Beuvoir met Jean-Paul Sarte, a famous existentialist philosopher, who helped her philosophical views.
a. Although Sarte had a great influence on de Beauvoir, many of her concepts and ideas were and are her own
D. Analysis: This influence, from her early rebellion against her religion to her long-term partnership, led to Simone de Beauvoir to study philosophy with a deep connection to women’s rights, and eventually led to her writing The Second Sex.
V. Arguement: The concept of “The Other” is an existentialist concept, used in this case to define women, that changed the way men view women and women view themselves in relationship to man in The Second Sex.
A. The term “The Other” is a term used in existentialist philosophy, and in The Second Sex is used to describe the relationship between man and woman.
a. In The Second Sex, de Beauvoir explained that “the category of Other is as old as consciousness itself.”
b. In the relationship, “The Subject is the absolute. The Other is inessential.”
c. As explained in The Second Sex, man sees himself as ‘self’, and woman as ‘other’, similar examples of this relationship from de Beauvoir include the young and the elderly, and colonizers with the native people.
B. Because men have identified themselves as the Subject, “the absolute human time,” man used this standard of human to measure women, identifying them as inferior.
a. Man considers himself “as the norm, because woman poses a threat to male selfhood, thus woman is constructed as Other and deviant, not self, and exists only in relation to man.”
C. After explaining this, de Beauvoir uses this newfound understanding to empower women, telling women to “refuse her status as other.”
a. She tells women that in order to do so, women should be working and being independent, women should be “creative, intellectual, and sexually empowered,” and de Beauvoir tells women to fight for social change.
D. Analysis: By introducing this concept to women, de Beauvoir is calling on women to fight for social change, both directly and indirectly.
a. Not only did the concept of The Other outrage women, it made women aware of the situation.
b. Women were now doing as de Beauvoir said, there was an increase in women working and being independent , women were fighting for education, helping them to be “creative and intellectual”, and women were fighting for access to birth control, giving women sexual empowerment.
c. Almost the entire Women’s Liberation Movement could be seen as refusing to be The Other, and knowingly or not, all of the feminists during the Women’s Liberation Movement were taking Simone de Beauvoir’s advice.
VI. Arguement: The famous sentence “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”, is one of the most important and impactful quotes to have influenced the Women’s Liberation Movement.
A. Meaning of the quote and analysis: This quote dives deep into the roots of femininity, and helps to answer one of main questions posed by the book: “What is a woman?”
a. De Beauvoir describes that “civilization as a whole” is what makes a woman a woman in our society, not any biological or physical differences to the man.
b. This quote has said that nowadays, in order to be a woman, one must be feminine and one must behave in the way women are supposed to behave.
c. Some have found this quote to be one of the first descriptions on the sex/gender divide.
B. Influence and Importance of the quote: This quote opens the second volume of The Second Sex, and is arguably the most important quote in this book.
a. This quote has been referred to as “no less of a landmark, of no less historical import, than Neil Armstrong’s assessment of the significance of his first steps on the moon. ”
b. These words, are said to be “the most famous ever penned in the service of liberating human beings from the constraints imposed on them, or that they impose on themselves through, sex difference.”
i. Women were freed from the pressure to be feminine, and now women would not let this idea of femininity define who they are.
c. It has changed how women understand their role in society, themselves and their place in relationships, and the “construction of gender.”
VII. Arguement: The English translation of The Second Sex was not nearly equivalent to the masterpiece that was The Second Sex in French, but nonetheless it empowered women across America to fight for their rights.
A. The original 1953 translation of The Second was an extremely abridged version that did not fully convey the ideas of the book and excluded many philosophical terms.
a. The translation was so “deplorable” that it led to an area of Beauvoir studies “documenting just how bad it is.”
b. It was so abridged that it withheld 15% of the original text.
c. The translation was done by a zoologist, with little philosophical background also.
B. The Second Sex was one of the first books to combine philosophy and feminism, and is considered “one of the foundational texts” in all three subjects.
a. Before The Second Sex, little philosophy on women had been written with the perspective from a feminist , allowing the book to have a great influence on feminist theory.
C. The Second Sex put how women felt into words, and got those words published, “this declaration of oppression” paved the way for the raising of awareness that led to the women’s liberation movement.
a. Because women had felt this way for quite a long time, the book only “validated women’s experiences of injustice.”
b. It also influenced the movement because it “gave us the vocabulary for analyzing the social constructions of femininity and a method for critiquing these constructions.”
i. Meaning that the book helped us to understand and analyze what was already being experienced by women everywhere, and to articulate it. ii. This led to a greater understanding and awareness.
D. The Second Sex was “considered among scholars to be among the definitive declarations of women’s independence”.
VIII. Counterargument: Although The Second Sex had a tremendous impact on The Women’s Liberation Movement in America, it did not have quite the impact on France, where de Beauvoir herself was from, adding to the unpopularity the book had amongst some feminists.
A. During the 1970s Women’s Liberation Movement in France, a number of feminists were not reading and “ignoring” The Second Sex.
a.
Therefore, one could argue that The Second Sex did not have very much influence on The Women’s Liberation movement, if the book had little influence on it’s own country.
B. In addition to her slight lack of interest in France, some France feminists even dislike her type of feminism, some going to far as to say she is not a feminist.
a. A book written by Suzanne Lilar in 1970 stated “it is a high time to loose respect for Simone de Beauvoir, it is a high time to desecrate The Second Sex.”
b. Tristan and Annie de Plsan responded to Simone de Beauvoir’s activism at a Paris meeting in 1970 with “We don’t want that kind of feminism here.”
c. In addition to the foul remarks made by these feminists, de Beauvoir was called “every infamy; frigid, priapic, neurotic, she had trampled underfoot everything that was good in the world.”
C. Analysis
a. With all of this negativity towards her image and the disregards for The Second Sex, the argument that Simone de Beauvoir did not have a great impact of The Women’s Liberation Movement is well founded.
b. Although the counter-argument does raise a good point, ultimately de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex had a great impact on The Women’s Liberation Movement in America, and her views and philosophy were read by women all across America in the 1960s and 70s.
IX.
Conclusion