Is sexuality binary?
Are men that far ahead and advanced away from women that the gender lines are no longer drawn in the sand, but divided by walls?
Do men benefit from women at all?
Simone de Beauvoir suggests that sexuality is oppressive and that while both genders are essential, they are not equal. A woman has a very specific role within the gender, and it is that of the master-slave relationship. Within the slave (feminine) aspect, another problem is that women cannot band together. Solidarity is difficult between women, which may contribute to the gender being suppressed.
With regards to the male to female relationship, de Beauvoir says that “And moreover woman is taught from adolescence to lie to men, to scheme, to be wily. In speaking to them she wears an artificial expression on her face; she is cautious, hypocritical, play-acting” (1270). She suggests that women are essentially trained to be submissive, to bottle their emotions, personalities, and their interests to intrigue men. It may have once been hiding admiration for reading or writing, but now it has evolved into silicone personalities (as well as boobies). De Beauvoir also says that “the fact is that she would be quite embarrassed to decide what she is” (1269). The social pressure and stigma of the male identity does not allow any allocation for the female identity. Women are meant to believe that they must be identified in contrast of what they are not, in this case, a man. Of course the well known stigma is that a man is aggressive, the alpha male. So, when women are pressed up against this concept, they become the opposite. The submissive the Barbie to the GI Joe.
Word Count: 293
Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
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