La lesbiana como punto de vista subversivo: Beauvoir y Wittig

Abstract

Simone de Beauvoir’s and Monique Wittig’s texts constitute an exuberant invitation to think, one crawling with themes and paths, concepts and arguments. My analysis will focus on Beauvoir’s critique of the position traditionally assigned to women as Other and her image of The Lesbian. Furthermore, in order to explore the topic of the importance of sexuality for both theoretical and practical feminism, I will offer an overview of the proposals formulated by Wittig, examining their relationship to Beauvoir’s claims. These two French thinkers are connected by their vigorous rejection of the essentialist conceptions of femininity. Both see this notion as oppressive, unlivable. However, they will follow different feminist paths. In Beauvoir, lesbianism appears as one personal choice among others, without the feminist impetus to transgress the established order. In a productive dialogue with Beauvoir, Wittig organizes her thought around what she calls “the straight mind”. The Lesbian becomes Wittig’s the embodiment of the break of the heterosexual contract. Due to the significance that Wittig attributes to desire and sexual pleasure, The Lesbian represents the only way to a life lived freely.