The Second Sex – Introduction (simone De Beauvoir)
Essay title: The Second Sex – Introduction (simone De Beauvoir)
A well-known writer thanks to her novels but also thanks to her relationship with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir is one of the most famous novelist and feminist of the last century. Most of her novels, among whom She Came To Stay (1943) and Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958) treated the main subject of finding ones place in the world, more precisely in society. Yet, the novel which, until today, creates debates and provokes reactions is The Second Sex which she wrote in 1949 and which is still considered as “a profound analysis of womens role in society”. What are the different points she develops in order to make her readers understand that society should change? Why, 46 years after the publication of the novel, can we say that she was right or wrong?
One of the Simone de Beauvoirs first thought about feminism is to say out loud that “a historical event has resulted in the subjugation of the weaker by the stronger” (page XXIV). I definitely agree with this statement because otherwise, why men arent called the “weaker sex”? Further in the introduction,