Secondary nature

In 1949, Simone. De. When Beauvoir's The Second Sex was published in France, it provoked two extreme reactions in society. "A woman is not born a woman; she becomes a woman later." Beauvoir made this famous point in her book, and the further interpretation of this line -- that women's fate as wives and mothers is imposed on them by men to limit their freedom -- shocked many, including the Pope. The Vatican banned it and feminists revered it. The book sold 20,000 copies in its first week in France, far exceeding expectations for a philosophical work, and has since sold more than three million copies in French and millions more in English, Russian, Japanese and German.

In the 1990s, by the time the book was passed to our country, time had proved that it was the "cornerstone of feminism", such evaluation carried the book to a certain height, also very intimidating to general readers. Unlike its name, though, it sometimes feels like reading National Geographic magazine, with lots of lively and lively content. Beauvoir began with the sex life of animals, from bees and fish to mammals and humans, and talked about the congenital differences between men and women - "women have a more developed thyroid than men, endocrine disorders affect the sympathetic nervous system, so the control of nerves and muscles will be abnormal, this instability and lack of control, constitute the basis of women's empathy."

The book is divided into two volumes, the upper volume is its theoretical framework. From the common sense of biology to the Freudian psychoanalysis and historical materialism of women, from nomadic women to women in matriarchal society and patriarchal society, to the aristocratic social circle in the 18th century, the change of women's social status after the Revolution to the time when she wrote this book, and the attitude of male writers towards women in literary works. In the second volume, she describes how women change from girls to women, how they experience different situations (marriage, motherhood, society, prostitution, old age), how they are limited in these situations, and what means they can take to achieve liberation.

If this book was only about "women's secrets," it would have attracted more people. But there is a clear logic behind it, and all the arguments point to the aptly named title. As mentioned earlier, physiological factors cause women to lack stability and control, so that they have limited control over the world. Beauvoir goes on to say that this so-called biological weakness is presented in accordance with male values, and that the concept of "mastery" is meaningless if men do not want to control the world. In this way, de Beauvoir finally fulfilled her task of writing a book to discover why women are second sex to men. How the nature of women has been affected throughout history, how human beings have treated human women.

In many cases, Beauvoir adopted an existentialist stance, which is to discuss problems from the perspective of human survival. Her analysis of the role of women from the inside has been described by some scholars as the most undisguised and fearless description. The problem is that she has adopted an attitude towards the female role that is more like that of a man than of her own gender. In the prologue, Beauvoir tells of an instance in which she was bothered by being told: "You think that way because you are a woman." Her way of defending herself is to hit back: "I think that because it's the truth." Yet she herself notes that men are both masculine and neuter in the world (for example, people often use "man" to refer to people in general). The standard of truth, then, is set by men. Her tone is calm, even harsh, and she talks about women in a way that, in many cases, makes her seem like a condescending man. It is impossible for a real man to speak of a woman in this way, and it can be explained by the fact that Beauvoir compares the position of women to that of negroes, and that in civilized society no white man dares to speak ill of a Negro except himself. She wrote the book after a huge emotional setback and the emotional pain endured by her female friends. Also, is enjoying the happiness of the family of women are secretly happy at home, probably also can not realize the injustice of "born as a woman".

Beauvoir's feminist tendencies were not innate. In Reminiscence of Girlhood, she spoke of her longing for her "other half" : "We climb the heights together, and my husband, who is a little swifter and stronger than I am, often gives me a helping hand in climbing the heights with me. In fact, I am a greedy, not too generous girl, I would like to receive, do not want to give. If the other person is inferior to me and needs me to drag him, I will be very impatient. If you meet such a person, it is better to live a single life, don't get married. My most important cause is to own the world, and my married life should help, not hinder, that cause. The man who is destined to be my husband cannot be different from me, not inferior to me, not much better than me, and who guarantees me a good life without taking away my autonomy." Next thing we know, she met Sartre when she was 20.

If Sartre had not been such a womanizer, Beauvoir would not have written this book. As a young man, Sartre had the belief that great writers were playboys, and that if he wanted to be a great writer, he should sleep with a lot of women, perhaps because of the lack of confidence of an ugly intellectual or whatever, but he was open to young women who were attracted to his ideas. Beauvoir suddenly realized that Sartre was only living for himself. In her semi-autobiographical novel "The Lady Guest", she wrote: "The price of reckless trust is that she is suddenly confronted with a stranger." But there are not many men in the world who are "slightly more agile" than one of the first French women to study philosophy at university. De Beauvoir passively accepted his lifestyle and formed a free relationship with Sartre that lasted 50 years, in which they each had other lovers and shared their affairs with each other.

Sartre did not seem jealous, but Beauvoir was not, though she had to pretend to be generous. In order to stay close to Sartre, she has to curry favor with the women he likes, and the women he abandons will lose her friendship. One of their girlfriends, Bianca, mentioned her hypocrisy in Sartre, Beauvoir and Me, published in 1993. Most of the time, the women in Sartre's life came and went, but in the 1940s, Sartre had an affair that was different. Sartre visited America and met Dolores, Bredon's former lover. Sartre was very sad about her. Dolores came to Paris to see Sartre, and he sent Beauvoir to live in the suburbs. Later, Beauvoir visited the United States and, with the intention of finding a lover, met Algren, the writer and lover whom she wrote about in her novel "The Famous Man".

Sartre was always the dominant figure in the love affair. Dolores wanted to come to Paris to see Sartre, so Beauvoir went to the United States to see Algren. In 1948, Beauvoir initially planned to stay in the United States for four months, but Sartre was afraid that Dolores had stood her up and asked Beauvoir to return in two months. When Beauvoir returned to Paris two months later, Sartre told her that Dolores wanted to stay a little longer. Beauvoir telegraphed Algren that she wanted to return to America to join him, but Algren, still angry that she had cut her trip short, telegraphed back: "Don't come, too busy." Beauvoir missed her step.

The love affair led Beauvoir to reflect on her 20-year relationship with Sartre and why she, as a woman, had always been on the back foot. "If you're a man and your upbringing is completely different, you should analyze it further," Sater inspired her. It became one of her motivations for writing "The Second Sex," a book she had already felt the urge to write while dating Algren. She devoted a great deal of energy to the study of sociology, history, economics, physiology, religion and other subjects. At that time Beauvoir was already a well-known author with novels such as "The Female Guest", but she was always regarded as Sartre's sideman. Writing "The Second Sex" was an explosion of great energy contained in her physical body. This is a feminist topic that Sartre never paid attention to, and her ability to read well, epic narration and incisive analysis make her somewhat out of Sartre's shadow.

Sartre's spiritual influence can still be seen everywhere, and the book's heavy use of existentialist analytical stances has been the cause of much controversy in English translations over the years, as illustrated by an article in the New York Times Book Review two years ago, titled "lost in translation." The translator of the English version is an anthropology professor who has studied French for two years in a Latin school in the United States and has no knowledge of existentialism. Therefore, there are many translation errors in the definition related to this aspect, and some deletions have been made without authorization.