Simone De Beauvoir: The Three Stages Of Feminism

The perception of lesbian women in society has undergone a great change throughout the three stages of feminism. In the first wave most lesbians felt as if they were trapped in a world in which they didn’t belong to. In the second wave the lesbians started to come out and fight for their rights in what became known as the feminist movement of the 1970’s. In today’s society, lesbians have the opportunity to express themselves freely as who they are and even though some might not think that they are treated as equals, a lot of progress has been made. In the chapter “The Lesbian” of Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophical text, The Second Sex, Beauvoir dives into a discussion revolving around the treatment and perception of lesbian women in the society

The third wave is a continuation of the previous two waves with a bigger emphasis on equal pay because so much progress has already been made. One of the most famous lesbian women from this wave is Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen came out as a lesbian in a 1997 cover of Time Magazine. She said that she had difficulty coming out at first but after giving it some thought she came to the conclusion that it was necessary to be transparent with her large fan base. Ellen says "Until recently I hated the word lesbian. I've said it enough now that it doesn't bother me. But lesbian sounded like somebody with some kind of disease. I didn't like that, so I used the word gay more often." In this quote we see that Ellen is against the negative perception that society has towards lesbian and that she is an activist for lesbian rights. In the chapter “The Lesbian”, Beauvoir says that lesbian woman will be cursed, but she also says, “Like all human behavior, this will involve playacting, imbalance, failure, or lies, or, on the other hand, it will be the source of fruitful experiences, depending on whether it is lived in bad faith, laziness, and inauthenticity, or in lucidity, generosity, and freedom.” In this quote from the chapter we see that Beauvoir believes that if a lesbian can be open about her sexuality and satisfied with the way society treats them, then they can have a happy and enjoyable life like the rest of humanity. In the first two waves it was difficult for women to be completely open about their sexuality, but with the progress made throughout the years we know see that it is possible through none other than Ellen