Feminism is a collection of movements aimed
at defining, establishing, and defending equal
political, economic, and social rights for
women.
Existentialism is a philosophical and cultural
movement which holds that the starting point
of philosophical thinking must be the individual
and the experiences of the individual, that
moral thinking and scientific thinking together
are not sufficient for understanding all of
human existence, and, therefore, that a further
set of categories, governed by the norm of
authenticity, is necessary to understand human
existence.
(Authenticity, in the context of existentialism,
is to recognize the responsibility we have
for our existence.)
This philosophy analyzes relationships between
the individual and things, or other human
beings, and how they limit or condition choice.Existentialist
feminists emphasize concepts such as freedom,
interpersonal relationships, and the experience
of living as a human body.
They value the capacity for radical change,
but recognize that factors such as self-deception
and the anxiety caused by the possibility
of change can limit it.
Many are dedicated to exposing and undermining
socially imposed gender roles and cultural
constructs limiting women's self-determination,
and criticize post-structuralist feminists
who deny the intrinsic freedom of individual
women.
A woman who makes considered choices regarding
her way of life and suffers the anxiety associated
with that freedom, isolation, or nonconformity,
yet remains free, demonstrates the tenets
of existentialism.
The novels of Kate Chopin, Doris Lessing,
Joan Didion, Margaret Atwood, and Margaret
Drabble include such existential heroines.
== Major Existential Feminists ==
Jean-Paul Sartre is a French philosopher,
existentialist and phenomenologist who contributed
greatly to existential feminism through works
like Existential Psychoanalysis.
In this work, Sartre claims that the individual
is the intersection of universal schemata
and he rejects the idea of a pure individual.Simone
de Beauvoir was a renowned existentialist
and one of the principal founders of second-wave
feminism.
De Beauvoir examined women’s subordinate
role as the ‘Other’, patriarchally forced
into immanence in her book, The Second Sex,
which some claim to be the culmination of
her existential ethics.
The book includes the famous line, “One
is not born but becomes a woman,” introducing
what has come to be called the sex-gender
distinction.
De Beauvoir's The Second Sex provided the
vocabulary for analyzing the social constructions
of femininity and the structure for critiquing
those constructions, which was used as a liberating
tool by attending to the ways in which patriarchal
structures used sexual difference to deprive
women of the intrinsic freedom of their “can
do” bodies.
Some say that de Beauuvoir is farther reaching
than Sartre despite often being overlooked
in many comprehensive works about existentialist
feminism.Maurice Merleau-Ponty was another
French philosopher who contributed many existential
works to the field.
Many following theorists, such as Judith Butler,
critiqued his methods, including his sexual
ideology.
Other theorists omit him, viewing him as a
"Sartre knock-off."
== 
Critiques ==
=== Simone de Beauvoir ===
Some critiques of the field are of de Beauvoir
and her portrayal of existentialist feminism
specifically.
Gwendolyn Dolske critiques that de Beauvoir
is inconsistent between her works, noting
that the women in de Beauvoir's fictional
works resign to cultural norms rather than
conquering their Otherness.
Simons critiques de Beauvoir's inability to
transfer her work in theory into praxis.
=== Critiques Against Sexism ===
However, most of the critiques are of the
limitations of the field overall.
Margery Collins and Christine Pierce fault
Sartre's limited anti-essentialism for his
sexist views which Hazel Barnes then refutes.
Maryellen MacGuigan criticizes Ortega's view
of women's inferiority, Julia Maria's sexuate
condition, and Frederick Buyendijk's narrative
of women's experience.
=== Extension to Gender and Race Studies ===
Jo-Ann Pilardi outlines the female eroticism
in de Beauvoir's work and Julien Murphy compares
the gaze or look in Sartre to Adrienne Rich.
Nancy Potter aligns women incest survivor's
experiences with dread and anxiety.
Janice McLane uses Merleau-Ponty's Concept
of flesh to describe self-mutilation.
Shannon Sullivan criticizes Merleau-Ponty's
anonymous body.
Linda Bell moves Sartre's notion of authenticity
from feminist existentialism to feminist ethics.
T. Deneane Sharpley-Whiting uses Fanon's analyses
of racist and colonized subjectivities to
discuss feminism.
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Joseph Mahon.
Existentialism, Feminism and Simone De Beauvoir.
Palgrave Macmillan.
1997.
