Born in Paris in 1908 to a bourgeois family, Simone de Beauvoir was well-educated, intellectually precocious and, as her father is said to have claimed, “she thinks like a man!†Simone studied philosophy at the Sorbonne and went on to write her highly influential feminist-existentialist masterpiece, “The Second Sex†(1949). The work details women’s subjugation and systematic oppression in society as purposefully constructed by the collective patriarchal hierarchy. However, existentialism believes that existence precedes essence, so women need only to reject the conscripted roles they are called upon to serve (by men, obviously). Simone de Beauvoir argues that one is not born “a woman†(as defined by societal expectations). Rather, women have the capacity, the capability and (most importantly) the choice to reject her confinement and choose freedom instead. Women must take this responsibility for themselves and transcend beyond the “female†playbook given to them by a society whose sole intent is to keep women limited to second place as “the second sex”. Can we get an Amen, sistas?
