Main Post: Summary of Levy and de Beauvoir

Summary of Levy “The Future that Never Happened”
Levy’s article introduces its audience to some of the famous figures and events of classical as well as modern feminism. It concludes in a comparison and exploration of the way that feminism has changed. Eventually posing the question of whether modern feminism is a revolution forward or a giant step back for the women of today. The first figure we are introduced to is Susan Brownmiller who together with several other important women lobbied for a revolution that would rid us of the oppression of patriarchal society. Brownmiller came into the public eye in the decade when many important events changed the lives of women. From 1960-1970 the feminist movement experienced repeated victories culminating in the ruling on Roe v. Wade. These years held some of the greatest successes for the movement, which may be because it was before factions started to develop in the movement. Some of the factions were spurred by the legendary figure of Hugh Hefner, who embodies the paradox that exists in the relationship between the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. Hefner lobbied for the rights of women, while at the same time still very much expected them to be sexual objects. To some he appeared a hero of freedom of female sexual expression and others saw him as a proponent of continued oppression. This argument stretched beyond Hefner himself and can be seen reflected in the porn and anti-porn movements. When women and sex are combined in the public eye and media there are breakdown into opinions of whether women are being objectified or finally being able to express themselves. The movement began to leave behind its utopian decade as Levy puts it, “what had been clear and beautiful was now messy and contentious”. Out of this division of the women’s movement into different faction came what is now described as “raunch feminism”. This movement is intended to be an exploration of women's sexuality, which boasts of events like CAKE parties where nothing seems to be taboo. This freedom to explore the limits of sexuality is a right that women should have if they so desire. With that in mind it is important to remember that just because now we can dance on a stage or pole in barely any clothing and claim that it is for our own benefit there is infinitely more to the feminist movement than sexuality.

Summary of Simone De Beauvoir
In this excerpt from Second Sex De Beauvoir’s makes many interesting points, the most significant of which is the idea of “the Other”. By explaining the idea that women are “the Other” in the society in which we live helps explain how we got to this point of oppression. If one race, nationality or gender is accepted as the norm this naturally marginalizes the other group and makes them peculiar. De Beauvoir proposes that in our society the male gender is accepted as normal and therefore everything is defined in terms of its relation to the male. A woman is not a woman because of the qualities she has, but rather those that she lacks in comparison to the male. Living as “the Other” has many undesirable effects, such as a lack of desire to solve problems that are specific to only the female gender because these are seen as unique or peculiar problems. When a problem is unique there is no need for the entirety of society to think of a solution. So why have women put up with this subordination? De Beauvoir suggests that it is because the lives of females are so thoroughly enmeshed with those as males. To fight the oppression that we experience can seem like a betrayal of those males who are important in our lives. Herein lays the difficulty of the women’s battle for equality. Women must attempt to achieve happiness in a society that tells her it is her duty to those who she loves to appear always content.