The Other By Simone De Beauvoir

Feminism has always a hot topic no matter what time period you may look at. And while it might not have been called feminism at those times, women’s rights seem to have always been up for debate. People seems to have this idea about women and that they are lesser and weaker than men. Throughout history, many people have been trying to change the idea that women are weaker than men. However, one person who might think that that narrative might be hard to change would be Simone de Beauvoir. She wrote the book The Second Sex in order to show how she believed women were looked at to as inferior to men, not because of something biological, but because throughout history women have been referred to as “the Other”. I see her argument as a stepping-stone

“Being-for-others” describes one person’s sense of how others view them. When thinking about how others view themselves, they are actually the object of someone else’s consciousness. Beauvoir starts to expand on his theory by saying that men have imposed their view on what they think women should be instead of one individual imposing their idea on another person. And because men have always been imposing their views on women for so long, women do not have the chance to develop their own sense of self. It’s interesting how women have been oppressed so much and aren’t able to enforce their opinions on what they expect from men and expect them to stick. This imbalance can be seen in today’s culture when you look at the way men try to make their opinions on women more relevant than women’s. Often times men will disrupt conversations between women to insert how they think women should act and what they expect from them in order to be viewed as “respectful”. When women hear this they might try to change who they are and how they act in order to present themselves in a way that will be permitted by men. However, the conversations often seem to be one sided. Women are expected to sit and accept their criticisms but if a woman were to try and have the same conversation with a man, it would fall upon deaf ears. Women might change themselves but for the most part men are so secure in who they are that don’t feel compelled to do the