Beauvoir asserts that women, like minorities, are given another label or separate identity that is abstract rather than concrete. The concrete would be our existence as human beings and the abstract would be labels such as Jew, Muslim, etc. Women, and the submissive nature of their gender roles indicate that they too exist as both a concrete human and an abstract idea of what a stereotypical woman is. She takes it further by then asserting that men only see women for sex, as “the sex” because men can think of himself without women in his life and women always think they need to be co-dependent on men. She feels that men are the One and women are the Other, that women are submissive and compliant enough to accept their role as the Other in society.
This theory does seem relevant in everyday society when we’re faced with millions of advertisements everyday depicting women as sex objects, women as the Other. Victoria Secret posters, Ms. Turkey and other women in Carl’s Jr. commercials, Sports car ads, cheerleaders, etc. These are all popular and widely perpetuated images of women that parallel Beauvoir’s points. Another point she makes that remains culturally relevant is that unlike minorities who suffer from being Othered, women do not have the same solidarity between them that makes them rise up and fight for better treatment. Blacks for example have always been treated like dirt in America but eventually they began to make positive changes for themselves in society through organized movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, Freedom Riders, Black Panther Party, etc. Women lack the same solidarity because there is a difficulty in organizing half the populace of the planet. Ultimately, women are caught between being objectified and subordinated to men as merely sex objects and at the same time they are unable to live without men meaning she cannot simply withdraw from society or cast men aside.
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