Noel M.

Gajete
2018-20415

1. What myth is being explored in this essay?

 It explores the concept of “women” and its significance.
2. What does it mean to be the Other vs the Subject?
 To be the “Other” means to be the inessential, the inferior, the insignificant, the polar
opposite, while the “Subject” means to be the dominant, the essential, the significant, the
“right”.
3. Do you agree that males have historically defined women? Is this a problem? Why or why
not?
 I agree, and somehow this is a problem. For this path of defining women is surely biased,
a definition that relied only on the outsider’s perspective. And because of this unbalance,
the general definition of “women” has become the definition that came from man. This
created the norm of what “women” is, that even women define and conforms herself
through this identification.
4. How and why does Beauvoir compare and contrast the situations of African-Americans &
proletarians with women?
 Because they both share the same struggles of being the “Other”, yet at the same time the
former were able to successfully bring themselves to be or to rise over the “Subject”,
while the latter (women) cannot seem to achieve this change. Beauvoir used their
situation to see what are the conditions that the former had that lead them to liberty and to
highlight the complexity of women’s relationship over the “Subject” that paralyzes them
to being the “Other”.
5. According to the essay, why haven’t women spoken up against this oppression?
 It’s because women have no peculiar solidarity, and the biggest reason is that the general
society made women to heavily rely on and be bound by man. And for women to stand
and claim to be “Subject” means to be independent/autonomous from man, which
removes all benefits and perks of being under the “Subject”. This might give them
liberty, but also leaves them with nothingness.
6. Is this essay still applicable today? Why or why not? What would you add to this essay to
make it more relevant to a Filipino readership?
 Its relevance is still applicable to this generation. Although the society has generally
acknowledged the liberty and independence of women from man, there are still visible
traces of this “Subject vs Other” dilemma. It’s like the quote “Old habits die hard”. One
thing I could add to make it more relevant is the issue of degrading the definition of
women (in Filipino context the “acceptance” of objectifying jokes from men of high
position towards women), and how the “machismo” that’s still evident even today seems
to continue the issue of woman being the “Other”.