SOURCE: "Ambiguity and Alienation in The Second Sex," in Boundary 2, Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer, 1992, pp. 96-112.

In the following essay, Moi discusses Beauvoir's philosophical analysis of female oppression in The Second Sex. "For Simone de Beauvoir," writes Moi, "women are fundamentally characterized by ambiguity and conflict."

Divided, torn, disadvantaged: for women the stakes are higher; there are more victories and more defeats for them than for men.

—Simone de Beauvoir, The Force of Circumstance (translation amended)

Preliminary Note

The article that follows is an excerpt from a much longer discussion of alienation and the body in The Second Sex, taken from chapter 6 of my forthcoming book on Simone de Beauvoir. The excerpt printed here is preceded by a discussion of the relationship between The Second Sex and The Ethics of Ambiguity, and by an analysis of the rhetoric—the language—of philosophy in The Second Sex. It is followed...