Wonder Woman of the Week: Simone de Beauvoir

Yes, I know, I missed a post last week. I was busy, get over it! This week I wanted to spotlight a woman that would honor all the new French people I’ve met in the last two months since yesterday was Bastille Day. This week’s spotlight may not have helped storm the fortress nor did she play a part in the French Revolution, but she was a major figure in French philosophy, sociology, and feminism. Simone de Beauvoir is the Wonder Woman of the Week.

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris to a wealthy family. Simone’s fathe yearned to work in theatre, but surrendered to social pressure and became a lawyer. Simone’s mother was a strict Roman Catholic. The contrasting personalities of her parents helped shape the woman Simone would become. She was still a child when she declared herself an atheist and claimed religion was a way to avoid truth. She committed herself to studying, learning, and writing; and at twenty-one moved into her grandmother’s home to begin her studies at Sorbonne. She chose to study philosophy. [1]

De Beauvior graduated in 1929 and in the same year met the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. While the two had a life-long relationship, more importantly they learned from each other. They never married and often had encounters with others- one in particular inspired de Beauvoir’s first fiction novel, L’Invitee. The novel explored existential ideas, the complexity of relationships, and a consciousness. [2]

Simone de Beauvoir became a leading figure in French philosophy. She was concerned with the concept of ethics. Her Pyrrus et Cineas explored the ethics of war drawing on war-torn France during World War II. She explored the ethics of freedom and independence in her Ethics of Ambiguity relating one’s sense of freedom with the freedom of those around them. Her work in feminist studies were enough to make the Pope blush. The Vatican banned her two-part book The Second Sex because it detailed the historic oppression of women. It is now a foundational text in women’s studies. She wrote fiction in novels, short stories, and theatre. She wrote about the oppression of the elderly after traveling to various US cities, and published her memoirs and biographies. [3]

Twentieth Century French Philosophy was Beauvoir’s world. She not only shaped the French Existentialist Movement, but became a leading figure in world feminism. Her novels explored ideas still discussed in today’s world- the complexity of relationships, the meaning of consciousness, and the ambiguity of independence. Her books on sexism helped expose a centuries’ old history of male oppression and the delegation of women as the “other” gender. Any woman that can make the Pope blush from her skill with a pen is a Wonder Woman in my book.

“Simone Beauvoir- Biography.” 2015. The European Graduate School. Accessed 15 July 2015. http://www.egs.edu/library/simone-de-beauvoir/biography/

“Simone de Beauvoir Biography.” 2015. Biography.com. Accessed 15 July 2015. http://www.biography.com/people/simone-de-beauvoir-9269063#feminism-and-philosophy

Mussett, Shannon. “Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986).” 2015. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed 15 July 2015. http://www.iep.utm.edu/beauvoir/