"Simone de Beauvoir is one of the most influential feminist philosophers of all time, with The Second Sex (1949) defining many elements of second-wave feminism. In recent years, her work has been twisted to support the biological imperative agenda pushed by prominent anti-trans figures in their most inflammatory books and blog posts. Beauvoir scholar Megan Burke sought to set the record straight and prove that Beauvoir's work supports an ethics of trans affirmation."
"Instead, they had envisioned a more positive project. "I just kept thinking about trans and non-binary existence through the lens of Beauvoir's existentialism," Burke says. "I was writing more about gender as a life project, as a Beauvoirian and as an existentialist."That intention remains; however, as Burke worked on their project, they encountered anti-trans applications of Beauvoir's work and felt compelled to respond."
Simone de Beauvoir's existentialism examines how people define themselves within society and frames gender as a process of becoming rather than a biological destiny. The Second Sex identifies how women were defined by otherness to men and presents the line, "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," to emphasize gendered becoming. Recent appropriations of Beauvoir have attempted to justify anti-trans biological imperatives. An alternative Beauvoirian reading emphasizes gender as a life project and an ethics of trans affirmation, arguing for recognition of trans and non-binary existence within existentialist frameworks.
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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