The Second Sex Reflection

The Second Sex Reflection Simone De Beauvoir’s main theory is that men basically oppress women by classifying them, as the other in every way, in opposition and subordination to men. She emphasizes that Men occupy the role of the identity, or subjects and women as the objects, or the other. She asserts that men venture out into the world to enforce their will on it, while women are condemned to endure. She stresses that men invent and act while women wait to be saved, which is quite true and can be viewed in almost any Disney narrative. De Beauvoir adds that History was written by the men. She demonstrates this opinion in the “Facts and Myths” part of The Second Sex. She claims that concepts of femininity, originated from man and with men setting the standard from what it means to be female. She adds that women have no voice, thus they cannot be the “problem, just as the “problem” of Jews and blacks is one invented and perpetuated by their oppressors”.
Simone De Beauvior states that “The whole of feminine history has been man-made. Just as in America there is no Negro problem, but rather a white problem; just as anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem, it is our problem; so the woman problem has always been a man problem.” De Beauvoir makes a relation between women and other oppressed groups of society however, she always adds a significant stipulation which is, unlike blacks in the United States and Jews in Europe or any other minority groups that are oppressed; women are not a minority. Females in fact approximately make up half of the human population at any given time in history. Another important difference is that women have never been segregated from man, as other oppressed groups. Women however belong to a lower “caste” in society. Despite this, women have always lived with men because man requires woman to survive. The fact that they need each other to survive makes the inequality and oppression of women bewildering. It is very infuriating and horrendous