de Beauvoir's argument in this essay is that a woman is nothing more than an object to go along with man in today's society, because of how men have oppressed them and shaped everyone's view on women. Only men are the subject, while women are just the "other." Women will always be inferior to men and keep that identity no matter what they do. They live as child-bearers and housekeepers, and are taught throughout life's outside forces to stay passive and to be very dependent.
I can connect to de Beauvoir's argument in my final paper because after taking the course Women in America, we have read a lot of stories and talked about the role women have taken in society, from years ago until today. For example, we read Pride and Prejudice, which went into great detail of how women were manipulated when it came to important things such as marriage. They were sometimes merely an object, brought up to someday join with a man to gain a name, wealth, and power.
I like how you related this piece to Pride and Prejudice. I didn't really think of the degrading of women in Pride and Prejudice. But, that makes sense because most of the women fell into the hands of male's manipulation. In de Beauvoir's piece she claims that women are "others" compared to men in society. That is how it was in Pride and Prejudice, women were degraded compared to males and thought of less than in society.
ReplyDeleteI like the relation to Pride and Prejudice, too! When I think of inequity between men and women I always think of jobs since that's what I've learned about most. I liked the different view on it with the book and manipulation.
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