SIMONA DE BOVUĀRA UN MŪSDIENAS: ATPAKAĻ PIE “PIRMĀ DZIMUMA”
SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR AND THE NOWADAYS: BACK TO THE ‘FIRST SEX’

Summary/Abstract: Simona de Beauvoir – a philosopher, writer, feminist, truly original thinker and the most spectacular person in the intellectual history of womanhood. She has been recognized as an ideal and an iconic figure, “Mother of Us All” (Sonia Kruk). She has been criticized for some features of her philosophical stance (in connection with Sartre) and for specific details of the feministic theory. Up until 1990, this criticism was ambivalent and issued from the confrontation of two theoretical types – those of Difference Feminism and écriture féminine and modes of gender ideology. At present – according to Ursula Tidd – the acceptance of her corpus has undergone consolidation. Every generation of feminists and each type of Feminism espouses a specific preoccupation with Beauvoir’s works drawing personal inspiration, especially from The Second Sex, which is justly considered as basic and has been dubbed as the Bible of the second-wave Feminism. The author of the article is inspired by the feminist connotations of the Second Sex discussion within the context of the present social reality, for Beauvoir’s works persistently originate questions and provide inspiring answers thereof. One such question concerns mutual relations of the concepts of gender, especially with regard to the ‘first sex’. The ‘second sex’ thanks to Beauvoir’s initiated feministic movement has become rehabilitated, has acquired rights of self-determination, while the investigations of masculinity have begun only in the 1970s by identifying masculinity with the general themes of patriarchalism and logocentricity. Thus, the gender aspect of masculinity has been neglected. De Beauvoir presents an inexhaustible gallery of women’s roles, while the roles of masculinity have not been sufficiently differentiated, thus allowing the persistence of the traditional stereotypes associating women with beauty and men with power and violence. (This is exemplified by official documents.) This creates confrontation of the genders and social dysfunction. The author is of the opinion that one of the questions that needs to be brought up within the context of Beauvoir’s heritage is her understanding of the role of both sexes in the form of a dialogue and generation of philosophically significant problematics for the sustenance of good life for individuals. These issues will be analysed by referring to Beauvoir’s works and modern investigations concerning gender identification and masculinity, thus arguing for the rehabilitation of the first sex.

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