Transcript 18 Beauvoir 2

Morality, Justice & Freedom
After the War
Poli 110DA 18
It is not in giving life but in risking life
that man is raised above the animal
Biology
• Male & female are facts of biology, but man
and woman are socially constructed
categories.
• But it is doubtless true that reproduction is
very different for males and females (and men
and women)
• The body itself means that men and women
experience the world in different ways
– Their situations differ at the biological level
• For a man, puberty is (relatively) mild, and his reproductive system
works essentially the same from then until he dies
– Thus, a man can feel unity with his body, he is his body (26)
• But for women, sex & reproduction are entirely different
– Menstruation often painful, affects moods
– Sex is invasive, the Other within the One
– Reproduction is painful and can be deadly, as the interests of the
species and of the individual diverge
– Pregnancy is literally the presence of another creature within the body
– Menopause another strange & uncomfortable change, but only after it
does a woman have roughly the same relationship w/her body that a
man does
• Thus, “woman, like man, is her body, but her body is something
other than herself.” (29)
– This point runs throughout Beauvoir’s analysis
• Biology cannot explain why women have been
othered. It offers only facts, but what matters
here is the interpretation of facts.
– These facts in turn can be changed.
– Man not a natural species, but a historical idea
– Under other conditions, these material conditions
could have different meanings
• A taboo against striking women would mean that the
male advantage in violence is neutralized. A matter of
society & culture.
Psychoanalysis
• What’s good about psychoanalysis:
• The insight that “no factor becomes involved
in the psychic life without having taken on a
human significance, it is not the body-object
that actually exists, but the body as lived in by
the subject.” (38)
– Not the brute fact of biology, but its meaning and
interpretation that matters for the individual.
What’s bad about psychoanalysis:
• 1. Though presented as science, psychoanalysis assumes the very
phenomena that it pretends to explain:
– Example: Penis envy
• Girl sees boy’s penis, feels ashamed and lacking in her “mutilation”
• She feels inferior, but may stubbornly act as if she had a penis, thus acting
“masculine” or becoming a lesbian.
• But why should she feel mutilated & ashamed?
– This is possible only if the phallus is assumed to have an obvious
positive import. Why should it?
– Freud thus assumes the superior valuation of masculinity over
femininity.
• If a girl feels envy of a boy, why should this not be for the simple reason that
he is privileged over her?
• Moreover, why should a girl who climbs trees be imitating a boy? Why should
she not simply been seen as liking to climb trees?
• Defines women by men
What’s bad about psychoanalysis:
• 2. In defining women by men, Freud simply maps
male sexuality onto women.
– The libido is ‘essentially masculine’
• Being
• But the difference in bodies means a different
situation
– Women don’t experience sex or sexual development
as a modification of the male experience
• Freud posits men as the default experience.
– The fear of the pain in defloration, penetration,
pregnancy and childbirth means that female sexuality
is generally a mixture of apprehension and desire
What’s bad about psychoanalysis:
• 3. Freud argues that it is the “normal” that is
to be striven for: you are healthy when you
can function in society.
– The power inherent in “normal”
• 4. But what if you simply choose not to be that
way?
– For Beauvoir, Freud presented humans as being
only “the battleground of compulsions and
prohibitions.” (45)
• For her, he denies the possibility of choice
Historical Materialism
• What’s good about it:
– Understands that social roles and categories
evolve in response to changing conditions across
history.
– Understands the influence of the past over the
present and the future.
Engels
• Fundamental problem: In focusing only on
material conditions, Marxists oversimplify the
case.
– When men invented bronze, gaining new
productive power, they invented private property,
and then slavery. All of a sudden, women & the
domestic sphere seemed inferior.
• But modern technology allows women to be as
productive as men. Thus, old forms of gender
oppression should fall away.
Problems with Marxism
• Beauvoir: but why should this productive change
have the character of making men superior to
women? Where does this impulse come from?
How can it be explained?
– It has its roots in the human need for transcendence,
to exercise control over the situation
• This is the root of the interest and prestige of
property. But why did this mean that women became
objectified, seen by men as the Other and useful only
for reproduction?
• What is needed is an existential (experiential) story of history.
The Roots of Otherness
• Beauvoir sees the roots of women’s Otherness
as being the product not only of material
development, but of the inherent desire of
humans to transcend their situations.
• Biology has until now disadvantaged women
in this desire.
• History frames our understanding of gender in
constrictive ways.
Nomadic men
• In crafting tools (weapons, boats, nets) men
worked in projects of transcendence.
– “In this activity he put his power to the test; he set
up goals and opened up roads toward them; in
brief, he found self-realization as an existent.” (63)
• This is why hunting & fishing expeditions were sacred,
and why one feels pride in accomplishing a project: you
realize that you exist (stand out).
Nomadic Men
• Most importantly, in hunting, fishing, &
fighting, men risked their lives.
– This proves dramatically that “life is not the
supreme value for man, but on the contrary that it
should be made to serve ends more important
than itself… For it is not in giving life but in risking
life that man is raised above the animal…” (64)
• To be human is to value something more than just
living.
• “Man’s design is not to repeat himself in time: it is to
take control of the instant and mold the future.” (65)
Nomadic Women
• But women were excluded from this by their biology.
– Frequent pregnancy and childbirth
• Create a burden on the tribe: with no concept of property, children
are not a legacy, only more mouths to feed.
• Absorbed most of a woman’s strength and time, limiting the
extent to which she can participate in projects
• Childbirth is not a project
– Only a “natural function”
– Women feel themselves “the plaything of obscure forces”
– Imprisons the woman in “immanence and repetition”. She
does not transcend the situation, she only reproduces it
endlessly. (63)
– Does birth control change this?
Agricultural Woman
• By settling permanently on a piece of land, humans
develop the concept of property.
– In developing the concept of property, they develop the concept
of history: the community is rooted in the past, and extends into
the future.
• Men do not initially understand fertility, see it as magical
both in farming and in human reproduction
• This means that women have increased status
– Trace tribe, lineage through mother, as fatherhood not
understood.
– The earth is a woman, and women’s reproductive power gives
them a prestige.
• Children become desirable, as the individual wants to pass down
property and the community wants to perpetuate itself.
Agricultural Woman
• But being the Mother-Goddess kind of sucks.
– While women are venerated, it is still men who do
the actual work (projects)
– Their incomprehension of reproduction causes
men to regard women as Other, not-me
– The powers of women are all of the supernatural
variety. They have not place in day-to-day
government or wielding of power… (70)
• Women identified only with the biological role, it is her
essence. Men remain much more.
Agricultural Man
• Eventually, men realize their ability to affect the
fertility of crops through technique, and come to
understand their own role in reproduction.
• At this time, father gods begin to supplant
mother goddesses.
– Women, already Othered, become subordinate.
– Women are excluded from the realm of projects more
because of this social and psychlogical experience
than due to inability.
• These attitudes influence each succeeding generation,
until they become understood as what it means to be a
man or woman.
• Example: Soviet women encouraged to behave femininely.
• This has always been bad faith, but the current
moment is one in which social, economic, and
technological changes enable new kinds of liberty for
women.
– Will they accept it? Will men acknowledge it? Or will they
continue to act in bad faith?
– Will women be acknowledged, and acknowledge
themselves, as existents beyond the biological, ceasing to
be defined by men?