The Second Sex

The Second Sex a 1949 book by the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. One of her best-known books, it deals with the treatment of women throughout history and is often regarded as a major work of feminist philosophy and the starting point of second-wave feminism. De Beauvoir researched and wrote the book in about 14 months when she was 38 years old. The Vatican placed it on its List of Prohibited Books. The Second Sex is the “Bible” of feminism.

Female is the second sex. It is a common thing that women are weaker than men inherently. De Beauvior argues that women’s lives are not planned, they should not be the second sex. There are two reasons that cause weakness of women. One is men. Men discriminate women, they are mean to women, and even sometimes cruel to women. The other reason is from women themselves. Women are passive, yield, and are lack of ambition. To liberate women, we should gain more rights for women and work equally.

In another article The Beauty Myth, Wolf says “Women’s beauty must correlate with their fertility, and since this system is based on sexual selection, it is inevitable and changeless…None of this is true” (3). The stereotype is women should inherently be beautiful because they are women, but it is fault indeed.

In the song If I Were a Boy, Beyonce sings, “If I were a boy, even just for one day… Drink beer with the guys, and chase after girls”. The media tell us women are weak, need protection, and should be beautiful. We just believed that.

Why can’t girls drink beer with girls, and chase after boys?