We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women's Lives = On ne naît pas soumise, on le devient

A philosophical exploration of female submission, using insights from feminist thinkers—especially Simone de Beauvoir—to reveal the complexities of women’s reality and lived experience What role do women play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? On the one hand, popular media urges women to be independent, outspoken, and career-minded. Yet, this same media glorifies a specific, sometimes voluntary, female submissiveness as a source of satisfaction. In philosophy, even less has been said on why women submit to men and the discussion has been equally contradictory—submission has traditionally been considered a vice or pathology, but female submission has been valorized as innate to women’s nature. Is there a way to explore female submission in all of its complexity—not denying its appeal in certain instances, and not buying into an antifeminist, sexist, or misogynistic perspective? We Are Not Born Submissive offers the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission, focusing on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir, and more recent work in feminist philosophy, epistemology, and political theory. Manon Garcia argues that to comprehend female submission, we must invert how we examine power, taking a bottom-up approach and seeing it from the woman’s point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. Garcia demonstrates that only through the lens of women’s lived experiences—their economic, social, and political situations—and how women adapt their preferences to maintain their own well-being, can we understand the ways in which gender hierarchies in society shape women’s experiences. Ultimately, she asserts that women do not actively choose submission. Rather, they consent to—and sometimes take pleasure in—what is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy. Moving beyond the simplistic binary of natural destiny or moral vice, We Are Not Born Submissive takes a sophisticated look at how female submissiveness can be explained. "In the same magazines where women are urged to be free and to have careers of their own, one can also spot advice about the best ways to be an obliging wife and a perfect mother. Literature, film, TV, and the news depict and glorify a specific, sometimes voluntary, sort of female submissiveness that can be a source of pleasure or satisfaction for even the most independent feminist. But this female submissiveness has scarcely warranted attention in philosophy or feminist thought. From a feminist point of view, imagining that women might, in one way or the other choose to try out such submissiveness comes off as anti-feminist or even misogynistic. But are these submissive desires and pleasures at odds with the feminist's independence? In We Are Not Born Submissive, Garcia explains that the feminist agenda has many components but there are (at least) two of which are at the fore: shedding light on the oppression of women qua women, and fighting against this oppression. Studying female submissiveness, therefore, is a feminist undertaking in that it consists of hearing and taking seriously women's experience, of not presuming that they are victims, passive, or perverted. Garcia maintains it is not only possible, but necessary to study female submissiveness without presupposing anything, typically or naturally feminine or anti-feminist in this submissiveness. Using the theoretical framework of philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir and others, Garcia theorizes this fascinating dynamic in its full complexity. By looking at male dominance not from the point of view of those who dominate but from those who submit, Garcia avoids describing the exterior, objective subordination of women. Instead, she is able to examine what exactly it means to be a woman under male dominance, thereby describing the subjective experience beneath domination. It inevitably consists of not starting from the idea that this submission is inherent within women, nor that it is contrary to their nature, or immoral, or the result of a false, oppressed understanding established by the patriarchy. On the contrary, the goal of the book is to ask without any preconceptions what this submission might be that women experience, how it manifests itself, how it is lived, and how it can be explained"-- Provided by publisher **A philosophical exploration of female submission, using insights from feminist thinkers―especially Simone de Beauvoir―to reveal the complexities of women’s reality and lived experience** What role do women play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? On the one hand, popular media urges women to be independent, outspoken, and career-minded. Yet, this same media glorifies a specific, sometimes voluntary, female submissiveness as a source of satisfaction. In philosophy, even less has been said on why women submit to men and the discussion has been equally contradictory―submission has traditionally been considered a vice or pathology, but female submission has been valorized as innate to women’s nature. Is there a way to explore female submission in all of its complexity―not denying its appeal in certain instances, and not buying into an antifeminist, sexist, or misogynistic perspective? __We Are Not Born Submissive__ offers the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission, focusing on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir, and more recent work in feminist philosophy, epistemology, and political theory. Manon Garcia argues that to comprehend female submission, we must invert how we examine power and see it from the woman’s point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. Garcia demonstrates that only through the lens of women’s lived experiences―their economic, social, and political situations―and how women adapt their preferences to maintain their own well-being, can we understand the ways in which gender hierarchies in society shape women’s experiences. Ultimately, she asserts that women do not actively choose submission. Rather, they consent to―and sometimes take pleasure in―what is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy. Moving beyond the simplistic binary of natural destiny or moral vice, __We Are Not Born Submissive__ takes a sophisticated look at how female submissiveness can be explained. Copyright CONTENTS Preface 1 Submission: A Philosophical Taboo Female Submission and Feminism Submission from Women’s Point of View A Matter of Perspective Which Women? Domination and Submission With Beauvoir 2 Is Submission Feminine? Is Femininity a Submission? Are Women Masochistic? Submission: A Feminine Virtue? To Be a Woman Is to Submit 3 Womanhood as a Situation Sexual Difference Is Not a Matter of Essences Femininity as Social Construction? Situation and Sexual Difference Femininity, Situation, and Destiny 4 Elusive Submission Submission and Ordinary Life An Analysis of Power from the Bottom Up The History of an Inversion What Can We Know about Submission? Can the Subaltern Speak? 5 The Experience of Submission A Privileged Position An Original Phenomenological Method Phenomenology and the Silence of the Oppressed The Experience of All Women? 6 Submission Is an Alienation Oppression as Alienation The Woman-Object 7 The Objectified Body of the Submissive Woman Woman Cannot Abstract Herself from Her Body The Biological Body Is Social A Lived Body That Can Be Objectified: What Men and Women Have in Common The Alienation of Women: The Objectified Lived Body From the Body- Object to the Passive Prey 8 Delights or Oppression: The Ambiguity of Submission Beauty Love-Abdication The Power of Submission 9 Freedom and Submission An Ethics of Freedom Why Women Submit to Men Toward Emancipation Conclusion: What Now? NOTES Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Conclusion INDEX "We Are Not Born Submissive is the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission. Focusing on Simone de Beauvoir and more recent feminist thinkers, Manon Garcia argues that to understand female submission we must invert how we examine power and see it from the woman's point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. But we can grasp the ways gender hierarchies shape women's experiences only by taking account of women's lived experiences--their economic, social, and political situations--and how women adapt their preferences to maintain their well-being. Ultimately, Garcia says, women don't actively choose submission. Rather they consent to--and sometimes take pleasure in--what is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy." -- Back cover "A philosophical exploration of female submission, using insights from feminist thinkers--especiallly Simone de Beauvoir--to reveal the complexities of women's reality and lived experience." -- Publisher description