Zerilli's Feminism Without Solace: Reading Simone De Beauvoir

In Professor Linda Zerilli’s lecture, titled “Feminism without Solace: Reading Simone de Beauvoir in the 21st Century," Zerilli questions the proper approach to Simone de Beauvoir’s theories presented in The Second Sex. As she mentions, the The Second Sex evokes a feminist ideology for most of its readers. But the question stands as to whether or not de Beauvoir was truly a feminist or if she was an unbiased observer. The claim that Zerilli makes is that de Beauvoir’s theories cannot nor should not be easily labeled as overtly feminine since de Beauvoir did not identify with the plight of the woman outlined in her novel. A point that Professor Zerilli emphasized during her lecture was that assigning and defining femininity to females limits the the feminine role in society. To me, the perspective Zerilli presents during her lecture mirrors the sentiments of Frantz Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks. As both Fanon and de Beauvoir discuss their respective topics in the theme of discrimination, there is a common theme that the identity created by physical differences defines a person’s place in society. One of the seemingly counterintuitive claims concerning the The Second Sex made by Zerilli is that the novel is not meant to define and establish femininity, but almost to separate women from
The reason for this being was that de Beauvoir’s academic philosophies were inherently diminished by the very fact that she was a woman. Therefore, to the best of her abilities, de Beauvoir distanced herself from her studies. However, this creates an odd paradox in The Second Sex is a book written about women by a woman who wants to be seen as an anonymous unassociated observer. However, what de Beauvoir was defining was the idea of femininity unattached to the biological definition of a woman. As Zerilli said, having a womb does not make you a