The Second Sex
In her book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir considers how women, due to their biological processes, have been considered as fragile beings that have been subjected to the power and domination of men during different stages of their lives. In the first three chapters, Beauvoir seeks to establish the differences between the perception and the treatment given to women from their reproductive and biological functions. However, when trying to integrate this reading into my research and specifically into my object of study - the nuns and the conventual writing - I was able to discover that many of the reasons why women have been classified as the weaker sex and unable to perform the same roles that men -exposed by Beauvoir- are the same ones used by priests, confessors and men in general to control and relegate women to the domestic space. This becomes evident when Beauvoir maintains that "the woman, who is the most individualized of the females, also appears as the most fragile, the one who most dramatically lives her destiny" (13). I also think it important to take into account what Beauvoir describes as "male virility" in the Middle Ages, a similar nickname that was used to speak of Saint Teresa of Jesus, by qualifying her as a male woman, because she had the strength and wisdom of a man. The same thing happened with Sor Juana, who received a similar nickname. These women had to have a masculine knowledge so that their intelligence and strength were accepted socially.
On the other hand, references in the text to the body as a natural subject and as a total being are in tune with the nuns' descriptions of their bodies and self-imposed penances in order to experience the passion of Christ. In the case of the traveling nuns, the body is seen as an instrument of work, one suffers, but that suffering is given to God as a gift. Another point that seemed important to me is how Beauvoir presents pregnancy as a body or organism that rebels against that species that dominates and seizes it. I believe that, in the case of the nuns, through penance, fasting and writing are revealed to those men who wish to control their bodies. Because the convents also became a refuge for those women who did not want to be mothers or have a husband.
Finally, I wonder if you could consider the nuns in the category of the third sex. I also wonder how they can reestablish her autonomy over themselves, since they cannot be mothers in a physical form, but they can and do nourish their intellect and consequently their sisters.
On the other hand, references in the text to the body as a natural subject and as a total being are in tune with the nuns' descriptions of their bodies and self-imposed penances in order to experience the passion of Christ. In the case of the traveling nuns, the body is seen as an instrument of work, one suffers, but that suffering is given to God as a gift. Another point that seemed important to me is how Beauvoir presents pregnancy as a body or organism that rebels against that species that dominates and seizes it. I believe that, in the case of the nuns, through penance, fasting and writing are revealed to those men who wish to control their bodies. Because the convents also became a refuge for those women who did not want to be mothers or have a husband.
Finally, I wonder if you could consider the nuns in the category of the third sex. I also wonder how they can reestablish her autonomy over themselves, since they cannot be mothers in a physical form, but they can and do nourish their intellect and consequently their sisters.
- Beauvoir, Simone . The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Print.
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