Simone de Beauvoir (born 9 January 1908; died 14 April 1986), philosopher, feminist, novelist, autobiographer, social critic and French intellectual, remains a writer who escapes easy classification. Objectification, as a woman or as a writer, was something she always resisted. Widely revered in the feminist movement for having re-defined our understanding of women's oppression in
Le Deuxième Sexe[
The Second Sex] (1947), and setting a new agenda for second-wave feminism in the 1970's onwards, she did not initially identify with feminism.
The Second Sexwas undertaken as a philosophical exploration of what it meant to be a woman, not as a feminist polemic. Apart from the shocked reception to
The Second Sex, Beauvoir also became notorious for her manipulation of personal relations and her…
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Citation: Gordon, Felicia. "Simone de Beauvoir". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=318, accessed 24 November 2024.]