PHIL 375 Chapter Notes -Simone De Beauvoir, Eternal Feminine, Existentialism
Document Summary
Rejection of two positions: the "eternal feminine" and "liberal egalitarianism" Example of the "eternal feminine" position: even in russia, women are still very much women (3) Contrast this with sartre"s tautological example of bad faith; de beauvoir = existentialist! "tota mulier in utero: she is a womb," some say. yet speaking of certain women, the experts proclaim, "they are not women," even though they have a uterus like the others. So not every female human being is necessarily a woman; she must take part in this mysterious and endangered reality known as femininity (3) Biological and social sciences no longer believe there are immutably determined entities that define gien characteristics like those of the woman science considers characteristics as secondary reactions to a situation. If there is no such thing today as femininity, it is because there never was (4). Although some women zealously strive to embody it, the model has never been patented (3).