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Simone de
Beauvoir
(Existentialist)
By: Sofia Valencia








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Sofia Valencia
Block 6
05/08/2014
Index:

1. Historical and Personal Background..................... 3


2. Three main works. Synopsis..4


3. Beauvoirs philosophy. Analysis5


4. Famous saying 7


5. Beauvoirs philosophy applied to current events8


6. Work Cited..9






























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Simone de Beauvoir

How did Beauvoirs background affect her life?
Simone de Beauvoir was born in 1908 in Paris. She was the eldest daughter in
her family. Beauvoirs dad initially wanted to work in theater but due to social pressures
he ended up being a lawyer. On the other hand, Beauvoirs mom was a strict Roman
Catholic. It is said that the opposing believes of her parents influenced Beauvoirs
works. At first, she followed her moms doctrine and therefore she was really immersed
in religion but as she grew up she drifted away from it and started sharing more of her
dads thoughts. She was put into private institutions at young age and was educated
under the religious discretions of her mother. Simone became an intellectual person that
questioned the world around her. She declared herself an atheist as a teenager thinking
that believing in God was just a way of denying the truth. At age 21, she started
studying philosophy at Sorbonne. In 1929 she met a group of students that became her
friends and intellectual equals. That group included Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Hermaid
and Paul Nizan. Sartre started a life-long partnership with Beauvoir and influenced her
work greatly. Sartre and Beauvoirs relationship was very particular. They made a vow
in which they stated that they will practice complete honesty toward each other and that
they had the freedom to love other people. Sartre once proposed to Beauvoir but she
refused because she strongly disagreed with institutionalizing relationships. This
principle can be observed in her work when she defended mothers that werent on an
institutionalized relationship. During the Nazi occupation in France, Beauvoir continued
writing some books and her success pushed her into a more intellectual group of people
that included: Albert Camus, Bataille and Picasso. These people shared thoughts and
ideas with Beauvoir and that helped shape her own philosophical ideas. During this time
period, she experienced a lot of rage towards Nazis and war. Later in life she published
books that addressed issues such as confusion and advised people on how to deal with
those feelings. World War II impacted the philosopher. After this period her interest in
politics increased and she started a strong criticism against capitalism. Beauvoir
defended communist governments such as Chinas government and Soviet Unions. She
thought that with capitalism, issues like racism, class inequalities and social problems
arouse. Later in life, she started addressing issues that concerned contemporary women,
and still concern women today, like oppression and sexual inequality. Simone de

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Beauvoirs life affected her works in many aspects. She died in Paris in 1986 and was
buried in the same grave as Sartre.




Synopsis of three main works

1. The Second Sex: Most philosophers agree that Simone de Beauvoirs
greatest philosophical contribution was The Second Sex. Published in
1949 in two different volumes, it remains being one of the most
important texts for philosophical feminism and womens studies.
Beauvoir addresses on The Second Sex, how women have been under a
historical oppression, considered as an inferior sex, as mens Other.
Beauvoir explains that women have been perceived or, in our current
society, as the incidental, the inessential, as opposed to the essential. He
is the Subject, the Absolute. She is the Other. Beauvoir also proposes
how men have been known for transcending and women for living under
an enduring immanence. There are two major themes in this work. First,
it talks about the facts and myths about women that our society has
established. These myths are analyzed from different perspectives that
include: materialistic, biological-psychoanalytic, anthropological,
historical and literary. However, Simone clarified that none of this myths
are sufficient to explain womens as the Other and their enduring
oppression. The most remarkable myth that is addressed is the Eternal
Feminine. Her book also focuses on: one is not born woman, one
becomes a woman. Beauvoir explains that women are not born being
feminine but they are rather constructed by society to behave that way.
The Second Sex is Beauvoirs most recognized work and it talks about
different issues that women have to face everyday.
2. The Mandarins: It was published in 1945 and was Beauvoirs more
critically acclaimed novel. This novel won the Prix Goncourt, the most
prestigious French award for literature. This book mainly talks about the
responsibilities that intellectuals hold with their society. It explores how

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media such as -theater, journalism literature and philosophy- tries to
implement social change and to communicate with people of their
generation. The Mandarins engulfs many of Beauvoirs own concerns
like the fear of American imperialism, Communism and Socialism or the
relationship between the individual intellectual and the society around
that individual. Finally, it reports on political or personal alliance and
how this can end up with tragic results.
3. The Prime of Life: The Prime of Life, published on 1960, is the second
and the richest volume of Beauvoirs autobiography. Well received by
the public it had good critics and it was commercially liked. In this book,
she narrates her personal experiences from being a teenager to becoming
an adult. She also tells how she discovered the personal responsibility
that every individual has in war and peace. She explains the relationship
between the I and the We and clarifies that we have a responsibility
with our society. It also talks about confusion and anger and provides
advice for people to cope with these feelings. Lastly, she explains her
motives for writing The Second Sex and The Mandarins.

Beauvoirs Philosophy. Analysis
Generally existentialists believe that one is not born something, rather, we become
something. Simone de Beauvoir thinks the same way. She believes one is not born,
rather becomes, a woman. Simone de Beauvoir presents a picture in which women
struggle with the disadvantages of the female body. She explains how a womans
attitude towards her body changes as she ages and how society influences those
changes. Here she posts a question to society asking if the woman body does in fact
have disadvantages or is it society the one that judges the woman body to have
disadvantages. To answer these questions, Simone de Beauvoir performed different case
studies in which she analyzed both women that were oppressed and women that were
free. She also analyzed other scenarios in which the female body was presented
positively or negatively. A woman can use her body to be free but she can also be
oppressed by it. According to Simone de Beauvoir, a womans body represents a
disadvantage only if she perceives herself as an object of societys gaze. Then, Beauvoir
explains that men provide the meaning of being a woman. The concept of woman is a
concept created by man and that is why woman are the other sex because man is the

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seer. Man is the subject while the woman is the object. Simone de Beauvoir argues
that the disadvantages of being a woman are not given by biological conditions, they are
rather granted by a hostile society. As the girls body matures society starts reacting in a
hostile way and a process of becoming flesh begins in which a girls body becomes
exposed to anothers gaze and the girl starts seeing her body as sexual. On the other
hand, Beauvoir talks about scenarios in which girls dont feel self-conscious or ashamed
of their body. She says that when a girl is in nature, she can find a connection with it
and plus there is no men gazing and commenting on her body or there is no mother
criticizing her actions. Through nature a girl can feel free and secure, because she
doesnt have to see herself through nobodies eyes, finally she can see herself with her
own eyes. To summarize this concept, Simone de Beauvoir believes that the inferiority
of women is not caused because of natural/biological factors but in the upbringing of
men and women. Men learn his power. Women are taught to believe that the
appropriate way to behave is being submissive. A woman is raised to believe that the
only way in which she can be happy is denying her true self. Therefore, the only
solution to this problem is to change the way in which children are being raised.
De Beauvoir uses two terms to define the two sexes: immanence and
transcendence. With the word immanence she refers to the role women have in
society: passive, inactive, immersed in themselves. On the other hand, she uses the word
transcendence to describe the role men have in society: powerful, creative and
productive. Every society should allow both genders to fulfill both roles, however,
according to Beauvoir men have denied women the right to fulfill the transcending role.
Beauvoir also juxtaposes production and reproduction. Society only attributes women
the reproductive role. However, a womans reproductive capacity should not stop her
from having a productive capacity. Nevertheless, women are denied their productive
capacity and they are seen exclusively as a womb. Women are slaves of their
reproductive role. They are denied any other role in society. The only way of solving
this problem is changing the family configuration so it can allow women to leave the
home.
Simone de Beauvoir also talks about some myths that society has established.
For example she poses the idea of the eternal feminine. The different forms that this
myth takes are: the womb, the purity of the virgin, the fecundity of the earth and the
sanctity of the mother. All these myths trap women into unrealizable ideals and it takes
away womens individuality. Simone de Beauvoir thinks there is not such thing as the

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eternal masculine, then there should not be a eternal feminine. People are not
defined by essence but they are defined by experience. The second myth is that women
are perceived as the Other. With this, she wants to transmit that women have a
secondary position in society. This myth arises when man asserts himself as a subject
because women automatically become an object. This means that for men, women only
have meaning as a sexual partner but not as an independent being. According to
Beauvoir, society commands women complete man while they remain incomplete.
Finally, Simone de Beauvoir also uses the symbol of the Praying Mantis to
explain some ideas. She says that women who try to transcend and fulfill a productive
role in society as received meanly by society. A woman that opposes or threatens mens
power is described as a cannibal, like a praying mantis that after sexual intercourse, eats
its partner. A woman that refuses to give up her true self is seen as aggressive.

Famous saying

One is not born, but rather becomes a woman
- Simone de Beauvoir
This is probably de Beauvoirs most famous saying. This statement is used to explain
that differences in gender do not arouse from biological circumstances but rather from
social constructions. Femininity is a construction of civilization it is not a reflection of
essential differences between man and woman but differences in their situations.
Character is not determined by essence, it is rather determined by circumstances. A
woman, as well as man, is formed by her upbringing, by they way she is raised; she is
not fully formed when she is born. Women learn their role from mens expectations
and what their mother teach them as they mature, they are not biologically born with a
determined role. Therefore, woman is not born to fit the immanence role. She is not
born to be passive, submissive or unessential but the pressures in the outside world
make her so. Every human being is entitled to subjectivity; the circumstances around
them are what shape their personality and determine their role. Women are not born
deprived of their rights; humanity has conspired against them to take their rights away.





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Beauvoirs Philosophy applied to current events
Simone de Beauvoirs philosophy is as relevant today as it was before. Sadly,
the role of woman in society has not changed drastically from what it was before.
Feminism has been able to return rights to some women but there still are thousands of
women that are being oppressed around the world. There are women who are denied the
right of education because thats one way to tie them to their immanence role. Other
women are not allowed to leave their homes and look for another way of working.
Oppression by men is still latent in our society because women have not yet achieved
gender equality with men. The causes of this inequality remain the same. Women are
not limited by their biological composition but rather by the boundaries and
expectations society has established for them in order to keep women under oppression.
The issue remains the same and Beauvoirs solution is still applicable today.
Rearranging the conformation of home is necessary for society to allow women to fulfill
different roles and be able to finally be transcendent and productive. For this to happen,
the way mothers raise children must change for people to learn since their youth. Both
women and men should be entitled to the same rights and opportunities.



















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Work Cited
The European Graduate School. (2012). Simone de Beauvoir. Retrieved April 30,
2014, from http://www.egs.edu/library/simone-de-beauvoir/biography/
Felicity, J. (2008). Becoming A Woman: Simone de Beauvoir on Female
Embodiment. Philosophy Now. Retrieved May 1, 2014, from
http://philosophynow.org/issues/69/Becoming_A_Woman_Simone_de_Beauvoi
r_on_Female_Embodiment
Musset, S. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Beauvoir, Simone
de Beauvoir . Retrieved May 1, 2014, from
http://www.iep.utm.edu/beauvoir/#SH3a
SparkNotes Editors. (2006). SparkNote on The Second Sex. Retrieved April 30, 2014,
from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/secondsex/