De Beauvoir’s novels, essays and philosophical works reflect a sustained and critical concern with the art of living and how to self-consciously live a life of personal choices that fully face the challenges and consequences of individual freedom, responsibility, and authenticity. Her authorial openness about her personal life and relationships often challenged the social norms of her time. Her lifelong relationship with Sartre has been regarded as the romance of the century. De Beauvoir made of her life and work an exemplary work of art. She is seen as the first and original literary voice of French feminism and of women’s emancipation in general.
De Beauvoir’s famous book, The Second Sex (2011), was the first major study of gender politics. The book was received as scandalous and placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (list of prohibited books) by the Vatican Catholic Church. De Beauvoir was described as vulgar, frustrated, obsessed with sex, a nymphomaniac. In The Second Sex she traced the nature of male oppression through historical, literary, and mythical sources. She attributes the oppression of women to a systematic objectification of the female as “Other.” Men have regarded themselves as “subject” and woman as “Other” in society by putting a false aura of “mystery” around the woman. This gendered image of women as mysterious can be used as an excuse for claiming not being able to understand women and their problems and for not treating women as equals.
Selected Readings:
De Beauvoir, S. (1967). The Ethics of Ambiguity. New York: Citadel Press.
De Beauvoir, S. (1985). Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre. New York: Pantheon Books.
De Beauvoir, S. (2011). The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books.