Thoughts on The Second Sex: Part VI

Martín Buenahora Bonilla

With this week's readings I had a lot to think about. But I will focus on two of them specifically.
The first thing has to do with the intent of the text itself. Whenever I have disagreed with what
Beauvoir said, I reminded myself that she is giving a phenomenological account on the experience
of being a woman about seventy years ago. Of course by now things would have changed given
how influential the book has been.
But, would not this put in question the extent of the value of this text? I do not mean to say
that it has not been as influential, or that we should not value the historical importance it had (and
had), but rather how well can it be applied to the present. This can be problematic given that
Beauvoir's audience needed to listen to the message put in a strong way, one which would move
them to action. But could not this text, read today without having this in mind, lead to excesses in
the fight for women's liberation? After all, to accept all of what Beauvoir says is to tacitly accept
that the situation is just as grim, which seems like a stretch.
The second idea is in regards to love. Beauvoir's analyses of the "woman in love" is directed
to a kind of pathological case, so what she says about it does not affect love per se. But still, she
seems to follow Sartre, and says that love implies the object-subject relationship. Even if we take
the genuine love that she studies at the end of the section, it would have to be distant, open and
without compromise, for to get any closer would mean that both would struggle to objectify the
other.