We, the members of THE MINISTRY OF VOICE, believe that Simone de Beauvoir got it right. She suggested that the status of one’s personhood should not be measured by comfort or happiness, but the depth of one’s liberty. Aristotle suggested that “the female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities.” For de Beauvoir, she employs this statement to illustrate the engrained reality of women remaining second class citizens. She is commenting towards the essentializing of women to be the reflexive or binary to man. Woman is not defined on her own terms, but in comparison to the preferable understanding of man.
de Beauvoir argues that man represents the positive and the neutral and woman is characterized as the negative, with limited criteria and without reciprocity. The absolute human type is the masculine. Man can think of himself without understanding woman, the masculine stands alone. Women, however, do stand alone in the tradition sense. She is tied to a rigid understanding in contrast to man.
This speaks towards the idea that man never refers to himself as an individual of a certain sex. It goes without saying that he is a man. In contrast, women maintain personhood through the validation of womanhood or the feminine. Despite man being ever dependent upon woman, they are not constructed as equals. The feminine is always disadvantaged on account of her gender.
de Beauvoir argues that man represents the positive and the neutral and woman is characterized as the negative, with limited criteria and without reciprocity. The absolute human type is the masculine. Man can think of himself without understanding woman, the masculine stands alone. Women, however, do stand alone in the tradition sense. She is tied to a rigid understanding in contrast to man.
This speaks towards the idea that man never refers to himself as an individual of a certain sex. It goes without saying that he is a man. In contrast, women maintain personhood through the validation of womanhood or the feminine. Despite man being ever dependent upon woman, they are not constructed as equals. The feminine is always disadvantaged on account of her gender.
Woman is the inessential which never becomes the essential. Though de Beauvoir argues that it is the woman which fails to bring about this change, this speaks more broadly towards the argument of de Beauvoir that women have taken nothing, and have only received. This can be applied more broadly to all who have been oppressed. Genuine liberty is not granted, it is taken.
Ultimately, “we must discard the vague notions of superiority, inferiority, [and] equality which have hitherto corrupted every discussion of the subject and start afresh.” de Beauvoir is suggesting that the existing language and ideas which created these inequalities are not sufficient to reorganize our understanding. A higher level of consciousness is needed.
Rather than measuring one’s happiness, which emphasizes daily contentment with the status-quo, THE MINISTRY OF VOICE asks you to challenge this reality. What is the status of your liberty? Do we think critically every day? Are we using our skills to their full potential? Are we acting out our agency to create positive change? Our human experience is more than the superficial conceptions of happiness which present positive vibrations in conspicuous consumption, and passive engagement through a screen. We must claim autonomy over our creativity.
To be a compliant collective accepting what is handed to us will do nothing. Happy thoughts do not challenge the exploitation, abuses of authority, greed or manipulation. This is a false consciousness.
Just as de Beauvoire explained, we can be comfortable and we can be happy, though this does not mean that we are free in the truest sense.
THE MINISTRY OF VOICE
For more information on our inspiration, check out these great sources:
de Beauvoir, Simonne. "The Second Sex: Introduction." In Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, edited by Carole R. McCann and Seung-kyung Kim, 34-42. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Hedges, Chris. Empire of Illusion. New York: Nation Books, 2009.
THE MINISTRY OF VOICE
For more information on our inspiration, check out these great sources:
de Beauvoir, Simonne. "The Second Sex: Introduction." In Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, edited by Carole R. McCann and Seung-kyung Kim, 34-42. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Hedges, Chris. Empire of Illusion. New York: Nation Books, 2009.
