Blog 3 - Daughters of de Beauvoir

 Blog 3 - Daughters of de Beauvoir 

Jordan Miles

January 16, 2023

After watching Daughters of de Beauvoir, produced by Penny Foster, several parts stood out. At the start of the film, Simone explains her mother's first reactions to her daughter saying she plans to attend university.  She explains how her mothers' first concern and reaction to this was what about your family? And that her father was a vigorous anti-feminist. It was shocking to witness these reactions because now in present times, many female families are supportive and very happy for their daughters to get their education in college. Additionally, they want to see them learn and continue to find a profession or potential career that they have a passion for. Another similar part of the film that was interesting is when Anna Oakley, explained how she is writing about the role of the women in the house, in her book called House Wife. She says that she wanted to explore the housework side of women as a job, which was regarded as a big joke to men. She goes on to say that men would think the only valid idea to talk about would be the sexual aspects of women in marriage. It was sad and shocking to see that this idea was seen as a joke to talk about, but it was real and very important to most women experiencing it and deserved to be talked about. She had to explore many questions including simply, why are the roles of men and women different? She studies and learns that this actually was not due to our biology as women, but from social norms and how men are. I think it is nice how some of these views of women have changed and evolved through history and that women have received so much more respect and rights than they had back then. Some parts of the film made me realize how little respect women had in the past and that their sole purpose was housework and raising children.