โIf God does not exist, everything is permitted.โ ~ Dostoevsky
Beauvoir presents a very niche argument against this saying that if a god does exist, a human commiting crimes can be pardoned and relieved of their wrongdoings by the man in the sky, but when god is taken out of the equation, Beauvoir says in translation that "manโs faults are inexplicable".
She leans towards positive nihilism - since nothing has meaning, it is upon us to provide it with meaning.
Is this argument just more of a building on the conscience of man? Is there more to it? I have been struggling with this for a bit and need help understanding.
"For most older girls, whether they have a laborious or frivolous life, whether they be confined to the paternal household or partially get away from it, the conquest of a husbandโor at the least a serious loverโturns into a more and more pressing enterprise. This concern is often harmful for feminine friendships. The โbest friendโ loses her privileged place. The girl sees rivals more than partners in her companions. I knew one such girl, intelligent and talented but who had chosen to think herself a โfaraway princessโ: this is how she described herself in poems and literary essays; she sincerely admitted she did not remain attached to her childhood friends: if they were ugly and stupid, she did not like them; if seductive, she feared them. The impatient wait for a man, often involving maneuvers, ruses, and humiliations, blocks the girlโs horizon; she becomes egotistical and hard. And if Prince Charming takes his time appearing, disgust and bitterness set in." - Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex (p. 438)
Felt the need to share this with all of you. The insistence that girls are "princesses" passively waiting for their princes really does a number on women's image of themselves, and of other women. Purity culture makes people shitty.
I've been reading the Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir but have reached a point (The end of Mythology) where it doesn't really feel like it progresses onto anything new or the points don't seem that enlightening.
I think I understand her views on Subject and Object and some points relating to existentialism although I'm not really familiar on the subject, not reading Being and Nothing. But I feel as if the books is a bit padded out with examples and literary figures which she uses to prove her ideas about female subjugation or seen as Other compared to men.
I've also noticed she goes heavily into the view of women from an outsider perspective. She seems to explain that women are something different than what men expect them to be, but doesn't explain what the ideal situation might be for women in detail or what women.
Is anyone able to explain any deeper meaning to her ideas or any material or books which might go along with the text? Thanks!
I am not currently interested in reading The Second Sex, but I would like to read Pyrrhus and Cineas as well as The Ethics of Ambiguity. Are there any particularly helpful secondary sources or commentaries on these two texts?
[Simone de Beauvoir](http://"Simone de Beauvoir - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir) was a French philosopher, writer and feminist. Her essay The Second Sex, published in 1949, opened the way to modern feminism.
Some of her other famous quotes include โOne is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.โ and โWomen are not the victims of some mysterious fate: our ovaries do not condemn us to a lifetime of submission.โ
When I saw what was happening in Texas, that's what I immediately thought of. So spot on. Us women can never let our gard down, and we must keep fighting for our right.
How to read "The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir? I have been planning to read it for so long, but it seems complicated. I started the first chapter and it takes a lot of time to go through a single paragraph, understanding all that scientific terms and some concepts as well. I keep on checking google every few minutes. Will it get better? And is there a website or a video that I can use to better understand this book?
I'm reading De Beauvoir in my Humanities class, and that got me remembering a time Abigail talked about her, but I can't find it. I thought she was mentioned in the coming out video, but she's not in the sources. The only one pulled up when Googling is a 2016 video that I don't think I've ever watched. Does anyone remember what video I'm thinking of? It's driving me crazy!
I found out that in 1977 happened the French petition against age of consent laws
They defendend a
> decriminalization of all consensual relations between adults and minors below the age of fifteen (the age of consent in France).
And
> A number of French intellectuals โ including such prominent names as Louis Aragon, Michel Foucault, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jacques Derrida, Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir [...]
This episode seems so absurd to me that I think there is something that is not being told. What is the true history about this?
