Second Sex (Complete Translation)

Author: (French) Simone de Beauvoir
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-07-01
Features: The complete Chinese translation of The Second Sex, a book historically renowned for discussing women's health, reason, wisdom, integrating literature, philosophy, sexology, psychology, biology, history, and economics, and hailed as the "Bible of Women." This authorized edition is exclusively published and distributed. The book is divided into two volumes. Volume I primarily discusses women's issues from the perspective of the female collective, serving as the theoretical framework of the entire work. The author first explores the sexual life of male and female sexes from a biological standpoint, from simple single-celled organisms to complex mammals, elaborating in detail on the various manifestations of asexual and sexual reproduction. It reveals the fascinating phenomena of hermaphroditism, parthenogenesis, and gynandromorphism in the animal kingdom, arguing that both asexual and sexual reproduction play equally important roles, refuting the view that women are merely equivalent to uteruses or ovaries.
Next, the author introduces the feminist perspective in psychoanalysis, suggesting that Freud's so-called "Electra complex" was fabricated based on his male-centric model of the "Oedipus complex." She questions whether the "Electra complex" truly exists in women, thereby critiquing Freud's "sex monism," which reduces women's physiology, psychology, and social status to mere "sexuality."
The author also dedicates significant space to discussing the changes in women's status, rights, and positions from primitive societies to socialist societies (specifically the Soviet Union), revealing many little-known historical facts. She then examines women's rights and status in Eastern and Western mythology, pointing out that the reverence for virgins was established only after the emergence of private property, as men sought to ensure the inheritance of ancestral wealth within a patrilineal system, thereby making women tools for producing inheritors.
In the second volume, the author follows the life trajectory from childhood to old age, exploring the individual development histories of various women (lesbians, prostitutes, women in love or mistresses, mystics or nuns, independent women or professional women). She extensively examines the physiological, psychological, and social changes of women at different stages of life and concludes that women must liberate themselves by acknowledging their natural differences from men and establishing a fraternal relationship with them.