Woman, Otherness, And A Call For Equality: Simone De Beauvoir And Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

This study examines Simone De Beauvoir’s theory of women’s status by centralizing her masterpiece, The Second Sex. Here, Beauvoir discusses women’s situation in society existentially and phenomenologically. She concludes that woman problematically seems to be the second sex or the Other in social life. At the end of The Second Sex, Beauvoir offers that if women were economically independent, their social conditions and status would be better. In addition, she suggests some helpful steps to change women's social life situation. Thus, Beauvoir continues, they could be equal to men and have their freedom. Although Beauvoir’s theory maintains its influence with the demand for equality even today, it is argued that it may lose its impact as it holds mostly women responsible for social transformation. It is defended that each individual should embrace basic steps for effective societal transformations. In other words, everyone should accept responsibility for transformation from the beginning. If not, how is it possible to change people’s ideas concerning the status of women? On that point, for a positive understanding of the existence of the Other, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the lived body with its social dimensions is applied. It is seen that his theory can be proposed to every single individual to spread the idea of equality for social transformations. In Merleau-Ponty’s existential and social theory, the relationships between others provide us with the awareness of equality between people and freedom in a relational field. Thus, his theory is introduced to approach the problematic status of women in Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. In this respect, it aims to highlight a theory that acknowledges the other as a valuable and meaningful existence by providing equality and freedom in intersubjective relations.