Beauvoir and "Second Sex"

 　　When people talk about feminism, they often mention the book "Second Sex", and mention Beauvoir's famous saying, "Women are not born, but acquired". Recently, I asked the French writer Beauvoir’s famous work "Second Sex" to read. The 700,000 words and 900 pages of the book are not easy to read. However, some gossip stories before and after the publication are very interesting.

　　Beauvoir has written four autobiography, but he has great reservations about his private life. It was only after her death that her diaries and letters were made public that people discovered that Beauvoir had a lesbian relationship, and the lovers they were dating were her own students. Later, some of these girls mingled with Sartre, and Beauvoir gave it to her. The letter written by American lover and writer Nelson is much more enthusiastic than the letter to Sartre. Beauvoir wrote an article analyzing how women's sexual autonomy is deprived. It seems that her own sexual autonomy has not been deprived.

　　Beauvoir has written four autobiography, but he has great reservations about his private life.

　　In the eyes of many modern women, Beauvoir is an ideal role model. She shows that a woman can live a life according to her own wishes regardless of everything, free from any prejudice. But in "Second Sex," Beauvoir writes that no woman can live her life "free of prejudice and prejudice."

　　Beauvoir was a schoolmaster since he was a child, going to school, teaching, and writing. During her schooling, French women did not have the right to vote, nor could they open their own accounts in the bank, that is, there was no guarantee of political power and economic power. Beauvoir’s academic performance is very good, but boys will not be regarded as intellectual or future professional competitors. At that time, the proportion of girls in French universities was 24%, but most of the way out for girls was to become teachers in girls’ schools.

　　Beauvoir wanted to study, but her mother wanted her to marry sooner. Eighteen or nine-year-old Beauvoir wrote in his diary, "I have a sense of powerlessness in life, no right to choose, everything is imposed on me, and in the end I can only give up myself in my life." Beauvoir told himself, "Be yourself, don't chase the goals imposed on you by the outside world, don't blindly follow the established social structure. What is useful to me is useful".

　　Beauvoir has a girlfriend named Zaza, who was born in a large family. Both of them like philosophy and both like to discuss philosophical issues like "love". The 21-year-old Beauvoir witnessed the disillusionment of Zaza's love story of life and death in pursuit of spiritual freedom. Love and freedom are unusually rare in a stereotypical society. Beauvoir's doubts about love and the emptiness of human nature can only be relieved in reason.

　　Twenty years later, "Second Sex" was published. In order to promote this book, the magazine "Modern" edited by Sartre and Beauvoir pre-published part of the second volume of "Secondity". One of the most eye-catching is the chapter "Female Sexual Enlightenment". In this chapter, Beauvoir describes a vision of free and mutually reciprocal sexual behavior, in which women can regard themselves as subjects, rather than as objects to enjoy sexual behavior. The novelist François Mauriac satirized Beauvoir’s article. Mauriac said that Beauvoir’s writing had reached the limit of sordidness.

　　Beauvoir has evoked a wave of humiliation. People scolded her as "hungry, indifferent, lewd, erotic, lesbian, aborted a hundred times, unmarried mother" and so on. Amidst the scolding, the first volume of "Second Sex" was officially published, with amazing sales, with 22,000 copies sold in the first week. Some male intellectuals accused Beauvoir of being angry with his inferiority complex. Some people said that the entire book "Second Sex" was full of "hateful tone." Some commented that the author was too neurotic and too frustrated. Ten years later, no one talks about this disgusting argument about sexual perversion and abortion.

　　No matter what kind of criticism and abuse she encounters, "Second Sex" has brought Beauvoir a generous amount of manuscript fees and an undesirable reputation. She bought a turntable and some records with the royalties, and it was all right to listen to classical music with Sartre. In November 1951, she wrote to her lover, "I decided to give my dirty heart to something that is not as dirty as a man. I want to give myself a beautiful black car."