Feminism in the Philosophy of Simone De Beauvoir: a Critical Analysis
CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE OF STUDY
The purpose of this study is to inquire, discover and criticize the concept of feminism in the philosophy of Simone De Beauvoir. It would also improve our knowledge of philosophical anthropology and existentialism, especially on feminism, by pointing some flaws in Simone’s feminism, using African feminism.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews some of the different works of different philosophers and feminists on Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (Feminism). Mary Daly’s review on De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex can be seen in her book; The Church and the Second Sex. According to her, “The Second Sex is unquestionably the most vigorous, comprehensive as well as influential work ever produced. No other work of this genre has approached it in scope and level of philosophical reflection; as such it has a wealth of research in history, anthropology, biology, psychology, philosophy and theology in its making.
The numerous passages in The Second Sex dealt with Christianity in general and Catholic Church in particular. She believed that and blames the church (Christianity) for her role in the oppressive situations of women which have arisen in the process of the evolution of humanity; hence, she vigorously criticized the church’s ideology and practice which is found disseminated throughout its pages. She therefore sees the fundamental differences between Simone De Beauvoir’s vision of the church and women and that which motivated this book as the difference between despair and hope”.1
Margaret A. Simon, an associate professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville reviewed De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, which can be seen in her work ‘The Silencing of Simone De Beauvoir. According to her, “Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex is one of the most widely known classic essays on women’s experience and a cornerstone of contemporary feminist theory. The Second Sex was translated by Howard M. Parsleys, a professor of zoology, who deleted over 10 per cent of the materials in the original French edition, including fully one-half of a chapter and the names of seventy-eight women in history. These unindicated deletions seriously undermine the integrity of De Beauvoir’s analysis of such important topics as the American and European nineteenth-century suffrage movements, and the development of socialist feminism in France.
Compounding the confusion created by the deletions, are mistranslations of key philosophical terms. The phrase, ‘for-itself’, for example, which identifies a distinctive concept from Sartrean existentialism, has been rendered into English as its technical opposite, ‘in-itself’. These mistranslations obscure the philosophical context of De Beauvoir’s work and gave the mistaken impression to the English reader that De Beauvoir is a sloppy writer, and thinker.”2
Toril Moi’s review on The Second Sex can be seen in The Adulteress Wife, and Simone De Beauvoir: the Making of an Intellectual Woman. “The roots of The Second Sex is in De Beauvoir’s realization that her life had been affected in countless ways by her having been born a girl. Toril Moi also wrote an essay on the first translation of The Second Sex; While We Wait. The English translation of The Second Sex is reprinted in The Legacy of Simone De Beauvoir.
“Moi attacked Parshley (the translator) for his cuts and “philosophical incompetence”. Zeroing in on language, Moi demonstrated that Parshley repeatedly failed to recognize terms of art from philosophy and existentialism. As a result, authentique, for instance, became “real,” and alienation sometimes became “projection”. More important, Parshley, seemingly innocent of De Beauvoir’s existentialist opposition to the concept of human or female “nature,” and her agreement with the fundamental Sartrean principle that “existence precedes essence,” repeatedly paraphrased De Beauvoir in a way that suggested she believed in a special female nature; the exact opposite of her position.”4
For Moi, all those problems together made it difficult to discover what De Beauvoir actually thought important on feminists’ issues. They falsely suggested that De Beauvoir wanted “women to become like men,” and that she forcefully opposed motherhood. In fact, De Beauvoir’s original French shows that she simply wanted motherhood, or non-motherhood, to become equally free choices for a woman.
On the whole, Moi “concluded, Parshley’s translation damaged De Beauvoir’s intellectual reputation because it made De Beauvoir look like the fuzzy thinker. Moi finally found three fundamental and pervasive problems in The Second Sex as; a mishandling of key terms for gender and sexuality, an inconsistent use of tenses, and the mangling of syntax, sentence structure, and punctuation”.5
Kristana Arp’s review on The Second Sex can be seen in her work; The Bonds of Freedom: Simone De Beauvoir’s Existential Ethics. The Second Sex has inspired mixed responses from feminists over the years, though most recognize it as a foundational text of second-wave feminism.
Arp compares Parshley’s translation with that of Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. By comparison, Parshley’s translation seems dry, mannered, and even prissy, that is when De Beauvoir describes the way a girl experiences her body during puberty, Parshley’s translation reads: It is more fragile than formerly; the feminine organs are vulnerable, and delicate in their functioning; her strange and bothersome breasts are a burden, they remind her of their presence by quivering painfully during violent exercise. While the new translation goes: It is more fragile than before; female organs are vulnerable, their function delicate; strange and uncomfortable breasts are a burden; they remind her of their presence during strenuous exercise, they quiver, they ache. The new translation follows the French more exactly and captures the rhythm of De Beauvoir’s prose. The strange and bothersome breasts in Parshley’s translation, with their “quivering”, sound almost like something out of a romance novel.
CHAPTER THREE
FEMINISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
LIFE AND TIMES OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR
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“Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand De Beauvoir was born on January 9, 1908 in Paris to Georges Bertrand De Beauvoir and Françoise (née) Brasseur. Her father, George, an aristocrat, had once desired to become an actor but studied law and worked as a civil servant, contenting himself instead with the profession of legal secretary. Despite his love of the theatre and literature, as well as his atheism, he remained a staunchly conservative man whose aristocratic proclivities drew him to the extreme right.
In December of 1906, he married Françoise Brasseur, a deeply religious woman and devoted to raising her children in the Catholic faith. Her religious, bourgeois orientation became a source of serious conflict between her and her oldest daughter, Simone, who was a precocious and intellectually curious child and immediately took to intensely instructing her little sister Hélène (nicknamed “Poupette”) as a student.
In addition to her own independent initiative, De Beauvoir’s intellectual zeal was also nourished by her father who provided her with carefully edited selections from the great works of literature and who encouraged her to read and write from an early age. De Beauvoir, always wanted to be a writer and a teacher, rather than a mother and a wife and pursued her studies with vigor. She began her education in the private Catholic school for girls, the Institut Adeline Désir where she remained until the age of 17. She met Elizabeth Mabille (Zaza), with whom she shared an intimate and profound friendship until Zaza’s untimely death in 1929. Zaza’s friendship and death haunted De Beauvoir for the rest of her life and she often spoke of the intense impact they had on her life and her critique of the rigidity of bourgeois attitudes towards women.
CHAPTER FOUR
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DE BEAUVOIR’S FEMINISM
This chapter criticizes the basic flaws of De Beauvoir’s feminism, narrowing them down to African feminism. Simone De Beauvoir’s feminism is guilty of misogyny. In other words it encourages the denial of female nature or biology, and as well attacks nature. Feminine refusal or denial is wrong; we are not dealing with a specific kind of refusal (the feminine as opposed to the masculine kind). C.B Radford therefore writes: she has been guilty of painting women in her own color because her book The Second Sex, is primarily a middle sex document …. Her image of women may be distorted…. Stevie Smith also writes: she has written about women and it is soon clear that she does not like being a woman. In the same vein, a French writer and political activist, Francis Jeanson accused her of writing as someone who understood the feminist condition because she herself had escaped from it1. However, she regards motherhood, reproduction and pregnancy as threats to women liberation. Motherhood, reproduction and pregnancy are neither barriers nor threat to women liberation; rather they are natural gifts to women. Liberation entails being free from the law or rules that limit someone’s social and sexual behavior. Women are neither caged nor restricted. Motherhood, pregnancy and home keeping cannot imprison or unliberate a woman. A restricted person or caged person or a slave is the only one who seeks liberation.
Motherhood is the bone of contention in Simone’s feminism. Simone De Beauvoir’s concept of feminism is parallel to African feminism. In other words, there is a big difference between Simone’s and African conception of feminism. I arguing here that motherhood is nature’s gift, power and authority to women, as such, woman hood is not only being a woman but also having and cherishing the essential qualities and features of a woman, which child bearing is one of. Thus Ogbu O. Kalu writes: Mothernity poses a threat in white/ European feminist rhetoric, but it is a pridal status in African feminism, where women are named as the mothers of their children.2 Motherhood is one of the high points of her existence which is seen as backward, old fashioned or unliberated in Africa.
CHAPTER FIVE
EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
EVALUATION
This chapter evaluates this work by summarizing and concluding. The evaluation gives the summary of the work, stemming from chapter one to chapter five.
Chapter one dealt with the general introduction and the general structure of the work. It stated the problems, the aims and significance, the methodology, scope of work as well as clarified of the terms.
Chapter two took care of the literature review. It reviewed the relevant related literature of some philosophers on feminism in the philosophy of Simone De Beauvoir in the contemporary period.
Chapter three focused on the concept of feminism in the philosophy of Simone De Beauvoir. She saw patriarchy, motherhood and religion (Christianity) as the main obstacles to women emancipation and liberation. However, chapter four made a critical analysis of Simone De Beauvoir’s concept of feminism; where her views as regards feminism were criticized, by narrowing it down to African feminism. It is then followed by chapter five with the evaluation and conclusion.
CONCLUSION
Having critically analyzed Simone’s philosophy of feminism, I have realized that the Second Sex is one of the greatest and most insightful works ever written on western feminism. I however concur with her that sex is not and should not be a barrier to women empowerment. Patriarchy is not the only constraint to women empowerment; rather women are also the architect of their downfall. With feminism (western feminism), one can misuse or abuse herself (especially with the mode of dressing) in the name of women liberation and empowerment. Internalized conception of themselves and of things that matter in life can also oppress women. With the popular admonition, “what a man can do a woman can do better”, has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by some feminists, as such has paved way for immorality in the society, the church’s seriousness in its liberation mission can make more serious efforts to bring some revolutionary changes on some factors that affect women’s status and role and the teaching of philosophy should also be encouraged so as to liberate the minds of the members of the society and that of the women, so as to encourage and mobilize them to do better wherever they find themselves, so as to cope with the numerous challenges of the contemporary society.
Feminism should direct its energy towards stopping the vicious circle of low esteem of women which leads to self oppression rather than combating with men and seeing them as their arch enemies. Women should be given equal more opportunities to perform, for denying them their rights of freedom and self expression is unnatural. When women belief that material goods, material status are the prime goods of life rather than integrity, authenticity and responsibility, they readily take to self destructive ventures such as prostitution and other vices that are inimical to women development.
This thesis is not only to expose the lapses in De Beauvoir’s feminism, but to broaden our horizon as regards the difference between western and African feminism, which has been generally misconceived as a philosophy of lesbianism. Every human society has a culture and norms, which are parts and parcel of her existence. Culture is indelible but those anachronistic cultural practices that are obnoxious and inimical to women development should be transformed and developed for women and societal development.
Women make up the highest percentage of the human race. To draw women down is to draw humanity down. They should be encouraged and mobilized that they can do better wherever they find themselves of as to cope with the numerous challenges of the contemporary society. The above has therefore given a detailed critical analysis of Simone De Beauvoir’s philosophy of Feminism.
Bibliography
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