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?The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure she carries or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides?? ? Unknown author. I received this poem in an email from my mother. The reason I chose to begin my paper with it ? is because I feel that it sums up how I feel that every independent woman should feel when stepping foot in this world today. By looking at Simone de Beauvoir?s Second Sex (Introduction), with a portion of John Berger?s Ways of Seeing but more specifically John Edgar Wideman?s Weight we can examine the early studies of women and their role in society helping us to build the foundations of the modern movement. A movement for altering gender equality, and the intellectual understanding of the dilemmas of women. In Simone de Beauvoir famous book, Second Sex: Introduction, women are the second sex coincidently, or to be considered outcasts in a society. It is evident that there are varying opinions about women's experience, feelings and thoughts, which are entirely unproven in reality: de Beauvoir quotes Aristotle, ?The female is a female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities?we should regard the female nature as afflicted with a natural defectiveness.? The theme of family hood is expressed where women are involuntarily accepted to carry out the burden with sole responsibility for the kids by our society. We act like this is "natural" when that is not the case. De Beauvoir points this out: ?Woman has ovaries, a uterus: these peculiarities imprison her in her subjectivity, circumscribe her within the limits of her own nature?Man superbly ignores the fact that his anatomy also includes glands, such as the testicles, and that they secrete hormones?whereas he regards the body of woman as a hindrance, a prison, weighed down by everything peculiar to it.? This shows that a man carries out his classification as a human being by objectifying woman: he is a subject through woman being object to him. De Beauvoir begins her whole argument with a long lesson in biology, believing that the differences between male and female are unimportant. Families are the primary source of love, joy, warmth and togetherness in our lives. And yet, family life is also full of many challenging problems and conflicts. A woman?s body goes through the process of the objectification. By which, her value as a human being will be determined by her physical appearance. Simone de Beauvoir the value placed on women's appearance is reproduced by a culture which a women's assurance with her body, as part of women's lack of ability to be a free, independent subject. Women are to get together in the process of objectification by accepting a woman?s existence placed upon her. Her own appearance can be seen as one way in which a woman can gain control over her life. Her appearance is one way she can express herself, by saving control over her otherwise powerless life. As women, we all want to look and feel our best.
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