Feminist Theory

Simone De Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, Adrienne Rich

One is not born a woman, de Beauvoir wrote, she becomes one. 

“What is the relationship between the myth of the Eternal Feminine and the lived experience of actual women?” De Beauvoir asked the question in 1949.

Is the question such that its essence is the stuff of human existence, and thus always there and unanswerable in definitive manner? If so, might this be because patriarchy is of such entrenched nature in Western society that it defines society itself? Then, is it that despite all of the progress that has been made since 1949, not much in terms of freeing women from stereotype has been achieved?

Feminism has faltered since 1980s, it would seem. Actions on its behalf since that time have taken for granted so much that contemporary activity undertaken for its survival has been tantamount to paying down the interest instead of paying off capital. It would seem that the outstanding sum will never be settled. 

Until something changes, in some aspect, the mythic view will prevail that women are defined by that which men are not – in the sense of whatever is leftover and not needed to describe and confirm male strength, vision and power. How could this be otherwise if, as in de Beauvoir’s view, the body is ‘situated in culture and history’ (Leitch 2001: 1405). Actions changed, thinking changed, and yet we continue to propulgate a sameness to our basic thinking. Unless, of course, there is indeed an actual inherent difference between the sexes that we cannot do or think otherwise.

The risk to women of the gains that have been achieved are significant; the risk of losing themselves paramount. Rich writes: “No woman is really an insider in the institutions fathered by masculine consciousness. When we allow ourselves to believe we are, we lose touch with parts of ourselves defined as unacceptable by that consciousness; with the vital toughness and visionary strength of the angry grandmothers, the shamanesses, the fierce marketwomen of the Ibo's Women's War, the marriage-resisting women silkworkers of prerevolutionary China, the millions of widows, midwives, and the women healers tortured and burned as witches for three centuries in Europe.”

Rich, in her writing, seems also to give example of de Beauvoir’s description of the body situated in culture and history, and of Foucault’s idea that the body and sexuality are social constructs, along with  Lévi-Strauss’s idea of ‘female exchange’, the idea of marrying out of one’s family, tribe, or clan. He proclaimed it to be the bedrock upon which society is built, the incarnation of the incest taboo. His construction has shaped how society is viewed. As has heterosexuality, Rich believed, because it has been entrenched in culture and history. As such, it has ensured that men maintain their power over and right to women’s bodies by insisting on heterosexuality as the only legitimate, and legal, form of partnership.

Bibliography

Leitch, Vincent B. 2001.

The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.