When The Second Sex first appeared in 1949 the book was widely attacked by its critics as an outrageous insult to the sexual morals of the day. That did not stop it from selling twenty-two thousand copies in the first week alone. Today the book is seen as a rallying cry for the feminist movement and its author, the French feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, is celebrated as as one of the most important figures in twentieth century thought.
On this course we explore Beauvoir's milestone work The Second Sex step by step and in an approachable and accessible way, all the while paying tribute to the originality and continued relevance of her thought. As a leading light of French existentialism, Beauvoir examines woman's condition and the limits of female freedom challenging society's deeply entrenched beliefs about femininity. Her concepts of 'becoming woman' and of woman as absolute 'Other', and her discussions on gender, sexuality, the body and ageing, are still amongst the most influential ideas in feminist enquiry and debate.