THE RELEVANT QUEER: Feminist, writer, activist and intellectual Simone de Beauvoir, Born January 9, 1908

“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”

TRQ: Simone de Beauvoir, Born Jan. 9, 1908

Feminist, writer, activist and intellectual Simone de Beauvoir was born on January 9, 1908. Known for her memoirs, her novels and her analysis of women’s oppression in The Second Sex (1949), she changed women’s lives around the world.

Beauvoir is regarded as an inspiration and hero by legendary feminists like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. Beauvoir was philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s partner in a long- term open relationship, and both are known for their influence on existential philosophy. Also involved in romantic relationships with a number of women, Beauvoir contributed significantly to theorising lesbian identity and gender performance.

Beauvoir was born into a bourgeois Parisian, Roman Catholic family. As a child, she attended a prestigious private covent school. After World War 1, her family’s status declined financially and socially. So, Beauvoir enrolled at the Institut Catholique de Paris to study mathematics, and the Institut Sainte-Marie to study literature and languages.

She earned her degree in philosophy from Sorbonne in 1928, where she wrote a thesis on “Le concept chez Leibniz” (“The Concept in Leibniz”). She met Sartre in 1929 while both prepared for a national postgraduate philosophy exam. Sartre placed first, and the Beauvoir placed second as the youngest person ever to pass the exam. She and Sartre began a sexual open relationship personally, and a working relationship that influenced existential thought that paralleled a mutual influence on existential.

Beauvoir taught philosophy in secondary schools from 1931 to 1941. She did not consider herself lesbian because of her attraction to men, but she had relationships with many of her female students during these years. Her teaching career suffered when the mother of student Nathalie Sorokine complained to school administration. Sartre’s No Exit (1944) features a lesbian character, Inès, who was modelled after Beauvoir.

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” — Simone de Beauvoir

Though she did not take part in resisting in the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II, Beauvoir published Le Sang des autres (1945) reflecting on personal responsibility and political involvement.

In 1949 she published groundbreaking The Second Sex, synthesising a Feminist existential argument for the distinction between sex and gender. In 1954, Beauvoir published Les Mandarins, a semiautobiographical novel in which her lover Nelson Algren, Sartre, Albert Camus and other intellectuals make disguised appearances. The novel won the Prix Goncourt.

Beauvoir started a relationship with philosophy professor Sylvie Le Bon, whom she adopted in 1980 after Sartre’s death. Beauvoir described Le Bon as her “ideal companion of my adult life,” but insisted that their relationship was not lesbian. Le Bon disagreed and explained that Beauvoir had only denied it to protect her younger partner.

“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female – whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.” — Simone de Beauvoir

Beauvoir became increasingly involved in the women’s liberation movement during the 1970s. Her Manifesto of the 343 (1971) listed famous women like Catherine Deneuve who had abortions, which were illegal in France.

On April 14, 1986, Beauvoir died of pneumonia in Paris. She and Sartre are buried at the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

“If any single human being can be credited with inspiring the current international woman’s movement, it’s Simone de Beauvoir,’’ said Gloria Steinem, paying tribute.

In 2020, plans were finally set to publish Les Inséparables (1954), Beauvoir’s novel based on her school girl relationship with fellow student Elisabeth “Zaza” Lacoin. Beauvoir’s “passionate and tragic” story was considered “too intimate” for the times and unfit for publishing.

About the Authors:

Troy Wise is currently a PhD student at UAL Central St Martins and teaches fashion and graphic design at London College of Contemporary Arts. His background is in marketing and he is founder and co-editor of Image Amplified. He lives in, and is continually fascinated by, the city of London.

Rick Guzman earned his most recent MA at UAL Central St Martins in Applied Imagination in the Creative Industries. He currently holds two MA’s and an MBA in the New Media, Journalism and International Business fields. Co-editor at Image Amplified since its start, he lives in London, is fascinated by history and is motivated by continuing to learn and explore.

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Sources:

GLBTQ Archive

NY Times

LA Times

Biography