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Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Part Two)

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Concluding Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

We continue on the ailments of women under patriarchy as well as the existential problems that we’re all subject to. Are we doomed to isolation, or does existentialism allow for intimacy? Is marriage in “bad faith”? We also talk narcissism, abjection, and the film Marriage Story.

Start with part 1 or get the Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.

Please contribute to the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society through Mina Linsenmayer’s campaign at partiallyexaminedlife.com/cancer.

Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Part One)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. What is love under patriarchy? We all want to achieve solidity in another’s eyes, but the Othered woman wants to live through the man, and the man sees the woman as his rejected corporeal character. Party time!

Don’t wait for part two; get the full, ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition now! Please support PEL!

Sponsors: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free trial of The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service. Visit Keeps.com/EXAMINED for a free month of hair loss medication.

Please consider contributing to the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society through Mina Linsenmayer’s campaign; see partiallyexaminedlife.com/cancer.

Ep. 234: Beauvoir on Romance in “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): “The Woman in Love” and “Myths” with guest Jennifer Hansen. We explore the maladies of love, try to figure how B’s picture relates to modern romance and what her positive prescription for good love is, and use the recent film A Marriage Story as a case study.

End song: “Easier than Leaving” by Michaela Anne, interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #114.

Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Part Two)

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Continuing Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) with guest Jennifer Hansen.

How does one become a Subject and how do women traditionally get shut out of this process? We get into Vol. 2, “Lived Experience” where Beauvoir details how this drama unfolds in various stages of life. Also, religion, logic, the relation of biology to situation, and more. How do we modernize Beauvoir’s critique given the evolution in women’s positions since the book was written?

Start with part one or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.

Sponsor: Give effectively through givewell.org/PEL.

Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Part One)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.

Continue with part 2 or get the unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

Sponsor: Give effectively through givewell.org/PEL.

Ep. 232: Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (Citizen Edition)

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On Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949): the intro, conclusion, “Woman’s Situation and Character” and parts of “Lived Experience,” with guest Jennifer Hansen.

According to Beauvoir, Woman is historically conceived of by society (and herself) as “Other,” as not a Subject who creates and makes decisions. Her life is predetermined, revolving around marriage and child-bearing, and is so deformed by this situation.

End song: “Wrong Side of Gone” by Beth Kille as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #13.

Authenticity from Heidegger to Fanon

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Heidegger’s conception of authenticity, is both appealing (in that it accords due significance to mortality) and troubling (in completely prioritising the self over others). The core concept can be retained while introducing an other-regarding elementcourtesy of Simone de Beauvoir’s early work on ethics. Fanon’s commentary on authenticity from Black Skin, White Masks develops the links between Heidegger and Beauvoir.

Episode 141: Beauvoir’s Existentialism: Moral and Political Dilemmas

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More on The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), this time on part III. Ep. 140 laid out man’s “ambiguity,” but what does that mean in terms of practical decision making? B. talks about the practical paradoxes of dealing with oppression and what it might mean to respect the individual given that there’s no ultimate, pre-existent moral rulebook to guide us, nothing we can point to to excuse the sacrifice of someone to a “greater good.”

Become a PEL Citizen to listen to the the Aftershow featuring Beauvoir scholar Jennifer Hansen.

End song: “Indiscretion (Mess Things Up)” from the 1993 Mark Lint album Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.

Episode 141: De Beauvoir’s Existentialism: Moral and Political Dilemmas (Citizen Edition)

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More on The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), this time on part III. Ep. 140 laid out man’s “ambiguity,” but what does that mean in terms of practical decision making? De B. talks about the practical paradoxes of dealing with oppression and what it might mean to respect the individual given that there’s no ultimate, pre-existent moral rulebook to guide us, nothing we can point to to excuse the sacrifice of someone to a “greater good.”

Continued from ep. 140. After this, listen to the the Aftershow featuring Jennifer Hansen.

End song: “Indiscretion (Mess Things Up)” from the 1993 Mark Lint album Spanish Armada: Songs of Love and Related Neuroses.

Episode 140: Beauvoir on the Ambiguous Human Condition

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On The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. We return to existentialism! Instead of describing our predicament as “absurd,” de Beauvoir prefers “ambiguous”: We are a biological organism in the world, yet we’re also free consciousness transcending the given situation. Truly coming to terms with this freedom means not only understanding that you transcend any label, but also recognizing that your freedom requires the freedom of others. The full foursome discuss whether this attempt to ground an existentialist ethics works.

End song: “Reasonably Lonely,” by Mark Lint.

Episode 140: De Beauvoir on the Ambiguous Human Condition (Citizen Edition)

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On The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947), parts I and II. We return to existentialism! Instead of describing our predicament as “absurd,” de Beauvoir prefers “ambiguous”: We are a biological organism in the world, yet we’re also free consciousness transcending the given situation. Truly coming to terms with this freedom means not only understanding that you transcend any label that you or anyone else has put on you, but also recognizing that your freedom requires the freedom of others. The full foursome discuss whether this attempt to argue for an existentialist ethics works.

End song: “Reasonably Lonely,” by Mark Lint.

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

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