Simone De Beauvoir And The Objectification Of Women

According to the Oxford dictionary, objectification is “the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object”. The objectification of women has been a regular theme all throughout history and still to this modern day. Looking in the past, women were treated like objects in their households in order to serve their fellow men, and women in the present day are viewed as objects if they present any form of sexuality. But why are women more objectified than their male counterparts? According to Simone de Beauvoir, there are many reasons ranging from biology, parenting, and societal views.

In society, women are constantly shamed for their sexuality, as Simone said, “In comparison with her the male seems infinitely favoured: his sexual life is not in opposition to his existence as a person”. Women, in comparison to men, are defined based on their sexual activity, if a woman has multiple sexual partners, society automatically deems her a slut, and it defines her as a person. Men, on the other hand, are never shamed for their sexual activity. The reason for this is women’s reliance on men, as Simone says, “Man can think of himself without a woman. She cannot think of herself without a man’ And she is simply what a man decrees; thus she is called ‘the sex’, by which is meant that she appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him, she is sex-absolute sex, no less.”

But why do men view women as objects? From a biological perspective, women are at an unfair disadvantage when compared to men. Simone wrote, “The individual’s specific transcendence takes concrete form in the penis and it is a source of pride… It is easy to see, then that that the length of the penis, the force of the urinary jet, the strength of erection and ejaculation become for him the measure of his own worth… Not having that, the little girl is not alienated in a material thing and cannot retrieve her integrity. On this account, she is led to make an object of her whole self... The absence of a penis prevents her from being conscious of herself as a sexual being”. Not having an object to blame on their sexual desire, women result in objectifying themselves in order to indulge in their sexual desires, which eventually leads to them being the ones to blame for their desires and shamed for it.

However, women’s objectification does not begin once they become sexually active, it begins from birth. Simone wrote, “Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion of them that the daughters have to conform to”. Parents of daughters always have a plan on what they want their daughter to be, and how she must behave, dress, and act in order to be successful, yet parents of sons want their son to be whatever he wants to be and do as he pleases. This leads to women being raised in a confined box in order to appeal to their parents; making them a model of their parent’s views, stripping them from their own goals, and if a person is set to fit a perfect ‘mould’ they are not their own person, but only a reflection of what their family wants them to be.

In addition, Simone de Beauvoir talked about how women are objectified in their own homes, “As soon as a woman refuses to be perfectly happy doing housework eight hours a day, society has a tendency to want to do a lobotomy on her.” Women in previous generations felt objectified in their homes because of the fact that they had to serve their partners in order to survive, making them do more housework than achieving any of their own personal goals; such as getting a job, travelling, etc. As a result of all the sacrifices a woman makes for her male counterpart, she is then viewed as a sub-human, As Simone stated, “Surely woman is, like man, a human being, but such a declaration is abstract.” This unfortunate but common view of women led to women’s oppression in the past, which would benefit men and hurt women, as Simone described it, “Doubtless an oppressive regime can achieve constructions which will serve man: they will serve him only from the day that he is free to use them; as long as the reign of the oppressor lasts, none of the benefits of oppression is a real benefit.” Men using women left women feeling less empowered, and more objectified.

In recognition of feminism and women’s rights movements, women were able to be free of societal restraints on them and were able to pursue and accomplish their dreams. And although times have changed, “The fact is that today neither men nor women are satisfied with each other”. The majority of men at this point in time think feminism is useless or that it is not appropriate for men to be feminists because it is emasculating, and they look down upon female feminists because they deem them as ‘radical’. Women, on the other hand, are upset with men for not taking into consideration women’s struggles or how they have more issues to deal with, and they are upset that men are not taking a stand in feminism in order to help their fellow women. Most men do not understand that objectifying a woman is harmful and damaging to her well-being, it can take a psychological toll on her, making her feel like she is ‘less than’ and feeling as if her body has more worth than who she is as a person even though, “The body of a woman is one of the essential elements in her situation in the world. But that body is not enough to define her as a woman.”