The Other Sex — Le Deuxième Sexe

A review of a recent book by Mrs. "Simone de Beauvoir," presented by Miss In'am al-Saghir:

Those who follow the modern schools in science, philosophy, and the various literatures know something, little or much, about that existentialist school of which many have begun to speak, and about which writers write, some in support and some in opposition. The particular character this school has taken on in France generally, and in one quarter of Paris in particular, has drawn much attention to it — and perhaps has diverted its purpose, so that form and appearance have come to prevail over meaning and substance! Is not the quarter of Saint-Germain-des-Prés the seat of the leader of existentialism among contemporary Frenchmen, Jean-Paul Sartre, and of his followers?! Among his most brilliant disciples, and those closest to him, is Mrs. Simone de Beauvoir, author of various novels such as "The Invited Woman" (L'Invitée) and "The Blood of Others" (Le Sang des Autres), and the tragedy "The Useless Mouths" (Les Bouches Inutiles), in addition to the valuable study Pyrrhus and Cinéas. And now the French press sends us a valuable new book of hers under the title "The Other Sex" (Le Deuxième Sexe), in two volumes; the first part appeared a few months ago and deals with "Facts and Myths" (Les Faits et les Mythes), and a short while ago the second volume appeared, but it has not yet left France.

As for the first volume of this book (comprising 395 large-format pages), its author has divided it into three parts. In the first she examined the natural facts of the constitution of the female body and the composition of her organs, then the psychoanalytic view, then historical materialism; in the second she treated the subject from the historical standpoint; and in the third part she spoke of certain authors and their differing opinions in the analysis of woman, her social position, and everything connected with the subject. This massive work contains everything that can be said in orderly discourse, precise in expression and elevated in its clear style; it presents all that is essential about woman from the dawn of history down to our own day. The subject is not new to readers, but it has never before been treated with such precision and detail, or with such a broad, worldwide, comprehensive view. The writer supports her statements with principles drawn from psychology and biology, from medicine and history, likewise from sociology, physiology, and psychoanalysis — and in addition to all this she has not forgotten to cite the various literatures of the world.

The natural phenomena and the natural constitution of woman have placed her in a position in which her strength is less than man's. But the human being is subject to custom and nature, and his value is measured against particular values, not against himself. Thus it is not physiology that determines these values, but society, with its customs and its laws; nor is man's bodily strength the ruling factor, for if custom had it — as is the case among certain Indian tribes — that the girls choose their husbands, or if the parents had the right to decide the marriage, the preference for the male sex would have no active, positive force here, and it would enjoy no superiority over the other sex. Even the relation of a mother to her child differs according to the prevailing social systems: the child may be a source of pride and glory to the mother, or a source of misery and wretchedness. In short, biology does not suffice as an answer to the question that the author of this book attempts to treat and to answer, namely: why is woman regarded as the Other (L'Autre) — that is, the holder of the secondary, passive position — while man holds the positive, active place?! Here we should mention the influence history has exerted upon nature, and what humanity in general has done, and its effect upon the human female.

Woman — or rather the girl — begins with a feeling of deficiency in her position and her power from her first awareness of things as a child. She observes the dominance the father holds in the home; and — according to psychoanalysis, which makes of the father a hero for the girl to follow, and of the mother a heroine for the boy to follow — this idea creates in her a leaning toward the veneration of man and toward considering herself of lower rank than he. The girl also feels that her mother contests with her for her father's love and attention, and so from childhood on through girlhood she grows up carrying within her that view of herself as the "other" person — that is, the secondary one. This is the summary of what the writer sets forth in detail in the chapter devoted to psychoanalysis, before she comes to treat the subject from the standpoint of historical materialism.

She begins with the Stone Age, when woman performed a large part of the work in the field she shared with man, in addition to her work in the home; then she gives a detailed account of woman's condition in history among all peoples and nations — the Greeks and the Romans, then the Arabs, then the Egyptians — mentioning the harsh existence woman led among some of them and the distinguished positions she enjoyed among others.

She reaches the history of woman in the Middle Ages, and mentions certain exemplary women who had a large share in history in the most varied fields.

The field woman has entered most is the literary field, though no woman has reached the summit in the manner of Dante and Shakespeare. The author goes on to explain the reasons for this, relying on the opinions of the social thinkers who have treated this subject.

The author then gives a historical sketch of the granting to woman of her rights and her equality with man, until she says:

As for those who oppose granting woman her political and civil rights, they rest their case on two things: first, that woman has never in her life created anything great; and second, that woman's position has not stood as a barrier to the emergence of great personalities from among women. We need not mention here the ill and tendentious intent these two objections conceal. But, as many writers say — among them, for example, Condorcet, Stuart Mill, and Stendhal — woman has never been given her chance in any field whatever. For this reason we find today a great number among them demanding that woman be granted a new charter and a right that has been taken from her.

Simone de Beauvoir says, after that detailed historical account, that this right must be given in full to woman generally, sooner or later; that day is not far off, and the period through which she is passing today is only a period of transition. For this world, which has always belonged to men, is still in their hands...!

The role woman must play in her home and in her work together consumes much of her time and of her capacity to perfect her work and to reach the positions man reaches. Nature has laid upon her the care of the family and of her children in particular, in addition to her outside work, while man attends to nothing but his work. Thus the economic advantage man enjoys, and his social position — his authority as husband, and woman's need of man's help and her dependence on him — all these things drive woman to one important point: appearing in a guise that pleases men. From this it follows that woman comes to know herself and chooses herself not as she exists in her own right, but as man defines her. With this the writer closes her historical chapter, to begin the final chapter, which is on the myths concerning woman.

Man finds in woman bright, shining stars and a dreaming moon; he sees the light of the sun and the shadow of the rocks, and at the same time he finds in her the wild flowers with their thorns and the haughty rose of the gardens. The sea, in the sailor's eyes, is a dangerous woman hard to conquer, yet he cherishes and loves it in the measure of the effort he spends to possess it. The mountain is a proud, rebellious woman, a virgin she-devil, in the eyes of him who climbs the Alps and stakes his life to discover some new place there and take possession of it. And the nearer woman is brought to nature, the more approval she finds in man's eye.

To say that woman is an obscure mystery does not mean that she is mute, but that her voice goes unheard: she is there, but hidden; she exists in spite of untrustworthy appearances. Who is she, then? An angel or a devil, an inspirer or an actress? These questions have no fixed answers — or rather, the answers do not apply to the sex as a whole, for there is an ambiguity attached to this sex, and she herself cannot define herself: she is a sphinx — she is a riddle!

The writer ends her detailed book by saying that the return to the past is no more possible than it is to be hoped for. What we must hope is that man accept, without stipulation or condition, the situation that is still in the course of creation, and that woman alone live this situation without retreating. Then will be fulfilled the wish of Laforgue, who said:

"O young girls! When will you become our brothers, intimate brothers, without any thought of exploitation whatever?! When will we clasp hands in a sincere, innocent handshake? — Then woman will become a human being in the full sense of the word, when her enslavement is finally done away with — that is, when she lives for herself and by herself, and when man grants her her freedom, after having shown, up to this hour, the most hideous kinds of infamy."