Simone de Beauvoir - Tyler Van Drei - WS 200

Simone de Beauvoir was born on January 9th, 1908 in Paris, France. She lived a long life and also died in Paris on April 14th, 1986. She spent her childhood in Paris with her younger sister and parents. She attended different universities and studied mathematics, literature/languages, and also philosophy later. One of her major academic accomplishments was in 1929 when she became the youngest person ever to obtain an agregation in philosophy.

Beauvoir chose to be a novelist and her first novel was titled She Came To Stay. She Came To Stay was a fictional novel about her childhood friend Sarte and students from her years of teaching at universities. The Mandarins was probably Beauvoir's most famous and awarded novel. The Mandarins won France's highest literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.

In regards to feminism, Beauvoir became famous because of her work with Existentialist Feminism. Her essay Woman: Myth and Reality was a standing ground that was based on the mistreat of women by men. By making women what Beauvoir calls the "Others" men make it so they do not have to listen or understand womens' problems and subjugating those problems. The main point that supported the feminist theory was that the men, who were higher on the societal hierarchy, made the lower group the "other" that came with, what Beauvoir called, the false aura of mystery that led to the patriarchal society. By being one of the beginners of existential feminism it helped other women by raising awareness to the problem that was
occuring.

Prior to researching this topic I had only heard the name of Simone de Beauvoir. I had known that she was an author but I was not aware of her many accomplishments and popularity. I think she can teach me, like many other feminists, that women deserve the same rights as men. From her it can be learned that feminism is the best interest of all people, women and men. In regards to those interested in further studying Beauvoir's life achievements and thoughts many of her books can be found, in English, at bookstores. Also, Wikipedia has a nice section concerning her achievements and a list of books that she has written. Many biographies have also been written concerning her life, even a song was written to commemorate her.

-Tyler Van Drei-