De Beauvoir is almost completely wrong, but this book is amazing. It is rich and very readable. ( )

El segundo sexo es una obra clave del pensamiento, no solo feminista, sino del siglo veinte. De ella surgen los nuevos temas del feminismo, una vez agotado el periodo de las vindicaciones primordiales (derecho al voto y a la educacion). Se analiza la condicion de la mujer desde los diversos puntos de vista desde los que se la conceptualiza: ontologico, sociologico, cultural, cientifico, historico. El resumen perfecto de esta obra se refleja en su frase mas famosa: No se nace mujer: se llega a serlo. En el primer tomo se realiza un analisis regresivo. Beauvoir trato de comprender cuales son las condiciones que han hecho posible el que la mujer se considerara como el otro, realizando una especie de encuesta a las ciencias, a la historia y a la mitologia como construcciones culturales que han posibilitado esta alteridad disfuncional. En el segundo tomo describe como viven las mujeres el hecho de ser seres oprimidos, seres transcendentes que no pueden realizar su transcendencia, sino que estan relegadas a vivir en la inmanencia. Nos va explicando como la sociedad y la cultura moldean desde su infancia hasta la vejez a este ser que es la mujer a traves de la opresion para que llegue a ser lo que es."

Thus, man today represents the positive and the neuter —that is, the male and the human being— while woman represents the negative, the female.
Every time she behaves like a human being, she is declared to be identifying with the male. Her sports, her political and intellectual activities, and her desire for other women are interpreted as “masculine protest”; there is a refusal to take into account the values toward which she is transcending, which inevitably leads to the belief that she is making the inauthentic choice of a subjective attitude.
The great misunderstanding upon which this system of interpretation rests is to hold that it is natural for the human female to make a feminine woman of herself: being a heterosexual or even a mother is not enough to realize this ideal; the “real woman” is an artificial product that civilization produces the way eunuchs were produced in the past...

I’m not a fan of most non-fiction it tends to be a bit of a trudge to get through. This one, i’m assuming some of the psychological stuff is probably out of date, its also probably longer than it needs to be and uses too many examples. Especially the literary ones, i actually skimmed quite a lot of those.

Theses are very minor complaints however. The length and depth gives this a very comprehensive feel.
There were only two non-fiction books i feel had a major outlook on my comprehension of the world. The [b:Martyrdom of Man|1467199|The Martyrdom of Man|William Winwood Reade|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348126939l/1467199._SY75_.jpg|1458115], from which i stole my user name, and one of those Introducing books on [b:Evolutionary Psychology|1803938|Introducing Evolutionary Psychology|Dylan Evans|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387728969l/1803938._SY75_.jpg|1803140]Evolutionary Psychology.
This work is now the 3rd to be added to that. A lot of the information here feels obvious but in the same way evolution or other ideas often feel obvious once people point them out.
Its also not just about women. Because its impossible to talk about one group without putting them in context of other groups it also reveals a lot about men and other oppressed groups.

Highly recommended. Very clear, very complete, very impactful (, oh! and very depressing).


( )

I read this back when I was a teenager in the 50's when life as a woman was becoming visible in a disturbing way. I am more observer than participator but also a victim. I was very aware of my female place in the order of things and often despaired and the unfairness, the inequity, the vulnerability and the sheer workhorse aspect of being a woman, wife, mother and later office worker who put in the same hours for half the pay and came home to a second and third job. This book lingered and perhaps opened my eyes too far and tainted my experience of life but it was true in every aspect. With Roe vs Wade being overturned within the month, guaranteed, I am reminded of those years of terror of pregnancy and back alley abortions. Then having to fight my doctor for a tubal litigation after two abortions, one child given up for adoption and now raising two...I was thirty and he refused. I did manage to work around him and got my wish but it was another example of my having no control over or decision making over my own body. So here I am rereading and despairing once more for womankind. We accomplished so much, we fought and came so far but the machine is working to take us back in time, take away all our gains and put the next generation in chains again. ( )

This book consists of three parts all jumbled-up together so that some of the still relevant gets missed in the "WTF did I just read."

One part is a solid historical look at what the life of women really was like before "women's lib." Those who would romanticize the good old days where the little lady happily stayed home and the man went to earn their daily bread would be well-served to read how miserable this arrangement made both men and women. It's a great reminder of why we don't want to go back there, but not terribly relevant to today.

Another part is a psychoanalytic nonsense that posits that women can cause their own miscarriages due to ambivalence about pregnancy or unresolved mommy issues. This is the "WTF" part of the book and I wish it was more easily skipped.

The last, and thankfully smallest part, are those paragraphs that could be written today in 2022 with very little changes. The ones that speak about men who want casual sex and shame women who give it to them, the ones that call out the hypocrisy of men who ban abortions while pressuring their mistresses to undergo the procedure. Those parts are the ones that make this worth reading still today; the ones that will stick with me. ( )