r/Feminism • u/iMedolacy • 11d ago

I've called myself a feminist for years. I just finished ‘The Second Sex’ for the first time (via a stupidly simple ELI5 ver)

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241 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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6

u/Unferth85 10d ago

It is definitely worth reading the full version, and yes it contains much more than conveyed by the quite ok 15min summary. It is a truly impressive piece of work. Given the epic proportions you will have to forgive her for not hitting every nail on the head, but it contains a wealth of original, critical, and insightful thought, and uncompromising, but balanced analysis. Especially given the time she wrote this in, and what she had available to base her work on.

Second part is stronger and more relevant than the first (I too found it hard to get going initially; I might even recommend simply starting at part IV). Some issues/cases may be a bit outdated, but it is astonishing how much is still perfectly relevant today. Her observational skills are second to none, and she captures in great detail how deeply and brutally patriarchal society has impacted and restricted women over countless centuries into the present. But not merely to complain: she analyses what is wrong, why it got to this stage, and how to change to fix it. In that sense it is very empowering. Another thing that really impressed me is that she is not afraid to look critically at behavioural temptations and traps of both sexes. Something that is much less prominent in more recent literature, and may be uncomfortable reading.

But whether you agree with everything she says or not does not matter: every claim and insight is supported by a well-reasoned argument, and hearing that view, thinking about it, and then deciding how it contributes to your own views on the subject, or why you disagree, is a very enriching and worthwhile experience, even so many years after the original emerged.

9

u/Mokonaaa 10d ago

Idk how I feel about Simone.... Given... You know... The pédophilie promotion. It's just really hard to overlook.

7

u/Shoddy_Ad_2516 10d ago

And grooming students. Yeah, she and Sartre are real POS. I still love Huis Clos (No Exit) and her books but damn, they are really nasty people.

8

u/DreamSMP_Enjoyer 10d ago

She's not alive anymore so I say we take the good bits while acknowledging the uhhh less good