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Listen "Kate Kirkpatrick - Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex""
Episode Synopsis
The Second Sex was written in 18 months, an incredibly short period of time, and the story of its genesis is the stuff of legend.
About Kate Kirkpatrick
"I’m the Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics at Regent's Park College, Oxford.
My research focuses primarily on Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and I've written a few books on Sartre and Beauvoir and Existentialism more generally."
The genesis of The Second Sex
The Second Sex was written in 18 months, an incredibly short period of time, and the story of its genesis is the stuff of legend. In one of her memoirs, she claims that she was having a conversation with Sartre; they were discussing what she should write about next, and the question of what it had meant to her to be a woman came up. One sometimes reads in the literature about Existentialism that Sartre gave Beauvoir the idea for The Second Sex, but this is far too simplistic.
In French literary studies, Existentialism is sometimes defined as a literary period rather than a philosophical one, and it includes works like Michel Leiris’ Manhood. Beauvoir read that book and thought that she’d like to write a similar one about what it means to become a woman. So, the conversation with Sartre was certainly part of the story of the genesis of The Second Sex, but Beauvoir’s wider reading was also extremely important. I like to think of The Second Sex as a work which was polygenetic, that had many different sources of inspiration, including Beauvoir’s reading, her conversations with her contemporaries, her experiences as a woman and the experiences of her friends. If we look at it in this way, it emerges as a much more complicated work.
Key Points
• The Second Sex is thought to have had many different sources of inspiration, including Beauvoir’s reading, her conversations with her contemporaries, her experiences as a woman and the experiences of her friends.
• The Second Sex was published in two volumes. In the first volume, she’s interested in the questions ‘What is a woman?’ and ‘What does it mean to be feminine?’
• The second volume caused a scandal. She makes the claim that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman.
About Kate Kirkpatrick
"I’m the Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy and Christian Ethics at Regent's Park College, Oxford.
My research focuses primarily on Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and I've written a few books on Sartre and Beauvoir and Existentialism more generally."
The genesis of The Second Sex
The Second Sex was written in 18 months, an incredibly short period of time, and the story of its genesis is the stuff of legend. In one of her memoirs, she claims that she was having a conversation with Sartre; they were discussing what she should write about next, and the question of what it had meant to her to be a woman came up. One sometimes reads in the literature about Existentialism that Sartre gave Beauvoir the idea for The Second Sex, but this is far too simplistic.
In French literary studies, Existentialism is sometimes defined as a literary period rather than a philosophical one, and it includes works like Michel Leiris’ Manhood. Beauvoir read that book and thought that she’d like to write a similar one about what it means to become a woman. So, the conversation with Sartre was certainly part of the story of the genesis of The Second Sex, but Beauvoir’s wider reading was also extremely important. I like to think of The Second Sex as a work which was polygenetic, that had many different sources of inspiration, including Beauvoir’s reading, her conversations with her contemporaries, her experiences as a woman and the experiences of her friends. If we look at it in this way, it emerges as a much more complicated work.
Key Points
• The Second Sex is thought to have had many different sources of inspiration, including Beauvoir’s reading, her conversations with her contemporaries, her experiences as a woman and the experiences of her friends.
• The Second Sex was published in two volumes. In the first volume, she’s interested in the questions ‘What is a woman?’ and ‘What does it mean to be feminine?’
• The second volume caused a scandal. She makes the claim that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman.
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