9 - Beauvoir and feminism: interview and reflections

Summary

INTERVIEW

Brison: Yesterday, you agreed that it's not enough for women to put themselves in exactly the same situation as men in order for them to be liberated. But you didn't say what you think we need to do now. I'd like to ask you the same question that you asked Sartre, a question it seemed to me he avoided: “Should women completely reject the masculine universe or should they find themselves a place in it? Should they steal their tools or change them? I'm thinking of science as well as language, the arts. Every value is marked with the seal of masculinity.”

de beauvoir: That’s a lot of questions in one. I think that feminists, at least those I’m involved with, want to change not only women’s situation but also the world. That is, these are women who would like to see a certain dismantling of society and who think that if feminism were victorious, if the oppression of women were completely eliminated, well, society would be shaken to its foundation. This cannot be accomplished without other kinds of action, for example, actions supporting class struggle and immigrants, in other words, all the actions one can imagine in favor of society. They must all be linked. So, it’s a matter not of women taking men’s place in this world, but of their being emancipated in such a way as to simultaneously change this world.