Abstract
In this article, I analyze the argumentative relationship between topics from The Second Sex , published in 1949, and texts written “by demand” from North American editors, such as Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita syndrome , published in August 1959. What they have in common is the proposal of demystification, present in the theoretical writings and even in those considered auto-biographical. Always concerned with inquiring into relevant themes, Beauvoir discusses topics such as symmetry, identity and difference, both between cultures – from Europe to the Americas –, and between the sexes – in the complex relationship of the feminine, criticized based on a supposed “nature” of women, and the masculine, which is emphasized in patriarchal society. Beauvoir’s point is not to revert, through writing, the dilemmas of history, but to criticize the impact of culture on reading and writing the real, without resigning herself to arbitrariness and to impositions. I therefore inquire into the axiological tenor present in her writings “by demand”; if it could be the same that is configured in The Second Sex , in the effort to demystify the illusions that hover above historical reality. I seek, in the interaction between texts and life practices, to understand the analytical method that launches Beauvoir’s thought as a matrix of contemporary feminisms.
Beauvoir; Writings by Demand; Demystification; Identity and Difference