The Second Sex reviews the history of women being shaped as "the other" by patriarchy, highlighting the
opposition between the self and "the other", which, similar to "the other" written by Hegel, Sartre and Heidegger,
has absolute contradiction with the self. In order to realize women's liberation, Beauvoir put forward two conflicting
macro-theoretical models, either emphasizing the abstract harmony between the sexes or transforming women into
new subjects ruling the unknown, which is "the new other". Yet the specific path she put forward was vague and
simplistic. The reason is that the author was influenced by the dualistic thinking and the physiological structure of
two genders. Only by starting from the overall turn of western philosophy to break the ontological myth, taking individuals as the nodes of a multi-mixed, endless spatial network, and building a network relationship beyond dualistic
opposition and centralism, can we seek more possibilities for gender equality.
GU Xi-dan
. Analysis of and Enlightenment from the Concept of "the Other" in Beauvoir's The Second Sex[J]. Journal of Chaohu University, 2023
, 25(1)
: 23
-19
.
DOI: 10.12152/j.issn.1672-2868.2023.01.004