Lesbian Connections: Simone de Beauvoir and Feminism

Abstract

U NTIL RECENTLY philosophy and life of Simone de Beauvoir have been read by most critics, both within and outside of feminism, as circumscribed by her relationship with philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Most philosophical studies of existentialism have dismissed Beauvoir as merely Sartrean (Simons 1990), a view reflected in Beauvoir's excessively modest claims that she, unlike Sartre, lacked philosophical creativity. Some feminist philosophers have criticized Beauvoir's The Second Sex as heterosexist, masculinist-and Sartrean. Why should we read Beauvoir? a friend once demanded, She's out of date, male identified, and just Sartrean anyway. Downplaying evidence of what Elaine Marks (Marks 1986) terms a homosexual secret in Beauvoir's texts, biographers have similarly read Beauvoir's life in context of her relationship with Sartre, as illustrated, for example, by title of a 1987 biography: Simone de Beauvoir: A Life, a Love Story (Francis and Gontier 1987). To most biographers, Beauvoir's relationship with Sartre is rivaled only by her affair with novelist Nelson Algren; her relationships with women are consigned to a distant third place. Deirdre Bair's 1990 biography is no exception. For Bair, Beauvoir's relationship with Sartre is the primary facet of Beauvoir's identity, tragically dominating her life and work (Bair 1990b, 497). Philosophi-