The first part of "The Second Sex", called "Facts and Myths", is divided into three parts: fate, history, and mythology, and discusses the historical status of women. In a nutshell, Beauvoir's discourse is based on the dominance of men in human society, with women in a subordinate position, existing as the "other" of men. The book begins with the French philosopher Rabard: "Everything a man writes about a woman is questionable, for a man is both a judge and a party." Beauvoir's "Second Sex", written by a woman, tried her best to get rid of the special perspective of the "female" gender and look at women from the perspective of "people".
Beauvoir's discourse is longitudinal and difficult to introduce in an orderly manner, so it is best to focus on the concept of "second sex" and "other", and analyze the role transformation of female "other" from the current reality in China.
First, let's talk about the woman's position in the family
Just as the literary works of Beauvoir Stendhal, Lawrence and others analyzed women, I would like to take Douyin as an example for a brief analysis. The author paid attention to several Internet celebrities with Mengwa as the protagonist in his spare time, such as Xiao Indica Can in Heilongjiang, Xiao Bamboo in Hebei, Xiaomina in Guangdong, etc. Although the videos have exaggerated elements, it can be basically seen that a considerable part of the current living conditions of families in China are in charge of money: the hostess manages money and has a dominant position at home, and the man's economy is regulated and in a poor position. Traditionally, women manage money more carefully, which helps the accumulation of the family, and the male owner is also happy to let go. But what is more crucial is that after the founding of New China, men and women paid equal pay for equal work, and women and men had the same economic income and independent survival ability, which is the biggest backing for women to really stand up. Although women still bear the responsibility of childbirth, after the end of maternity leave, it has become a common phenomenon for the elderly on both sides to help or ask a nanny to take the child, and the child and the hot kangtou can no longer tie the freedom of women. There are also some video numbers that focus on family trivia, and the girlfriend colludes with the mother, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law join hands, and the little sister-in-law and the sister-in-law cooperate to toss the male members of the family together, which has become a common routine. In the family vision of douyin, there is no trace of "second sex", and there is no "other", men and women get along happily, and women often occupy a leading position.
Second, look at the role of women in marriage
The traditional concept of "marrying chickens with chickens, marrying dogs with dogs" has basically been completely subverted, whether from the perspective of vibrato or from the daily observation around them, women's subordinate and passive status in marriage has been fundamentally changed. "Dong Long is even more of a chicken dog!" Women are more commonly dismissive of chicken-dog men.
On March 27, 2022, the public account of Sanlian Life Weekly published an article titled "What makes northeasterners so dare to divorce?" It belongs to the social survey of the Triptych Life Laboratory, which is very interesting. In terms of quantity, under the impact of the new crown epidemic, the number of divorces in various places has decreased year-on-year, but looking at the divorce rate, one in a thousand, this number is not small. Looking at the next figure, China's 2020 data shows that the provinces with the highest divorce rate in China are 71.51%, and the national average divorce rate is as high as 39.3%. Although there is still a considerable gap between the divorce rate of more than 50% in the United States in recent years, for China, which has been wrapped in thousands of years of feudal thinking, although the continuous rise in the divorce rate is a variety of factors, the improvement of women's sense of independence and social status is undoubtedly an important factor.
With the changes in the social situation, divorce is no longer a topic of storm in the city, unmarried has become the norm in the metropolis, children born out of wedlock are gradually being accepted, and women have become more active and autonomous in marriage. I don't know if you pay attention to it, the social attention of "older leftover women" continues to decline, and it is only her father and mother's seven aunts and eight aunts who are anxious, and the society's attention to this group is quietly weakening.
Finally, let's talk about the role of women in literature
Let's take several important works of Jia Pingwa as an example. The heroine Xiao Shui in the early "Impetuous" is still the image of a bodhisattva, suffering and saving others at the same time. Several women in "Waste Capital", although they have autonomy, still revolve around the male protagonist, which is a bit of the meaning of "Golden Plum Bottle". In recent years, the protagonist of the rural work "With Lights" is a grassroots cadre, and she is completely an independent female figure. "Polar Flower" takes the abducted woman as the protagonist and is a dark corner of society, but the heroine is also a person with an independent consciousness, not purely the image of the weak victim. And then to the latest long story "Temporary Sitting", more than a dozen women are completely independent people, they do not need to rely on men, the male protagonist Yiguang although there is the shadow of Zhuang Zhidi, but he is no longer the savior of women, just an equal existence, although the gender is there, there is no first, second.
Take Mo Yan as an example. "Fat Buttocks" is a representative work of Mo Yan women, although the praise and criticism are mixed, but the depiction of the suffering of Chinese women is through the back of the paper, and the heroine is a typical image of women who suffer in traditional China. Looking at the latest collection of short stories, "Late Ripening Man", the female figures in it, whether positive or negative, are no longer the images of suffering that bear the burden of humiliation, or heroes, or gods, all of which show a kind of tension. The three aunts in "Torches and Whistles" were bullied because of their family origins, their husbands died in mining accidents, their sons were eaten by wolves, and their daughters committed suicide by drinking pesticides because they were misunderstood by their families, and in the face of the difficult fate, the three aunts formulated their own revenge plan, and after killing a nest of wolves, they died desperately, and their fate was more tragic than Xiang Lin's sister-in-law and the mother of "Fat Buttocks". "Red Lips and Green Mouth" writes about Qin Guiying, a rural woman nicknamed "Gao Shen", who skillfully conducts network operations, like an opinion leader, constantly creating incidents and profiting from them, this kind of folk "big god", quite a bit of a red light to the godmother's feeling, by the surrounding society worship.
Let's take another female writer. Most of Chi Zijian's works feature men as the protagonists, but there are always delicate portrayals of women. The early work "White Snow Crow" created a series of vivid female figures of self-reliance and self-reliance, and the capable and talented Yu Qingxiu reopened the dim sum shop and lived strongly when her family was broken; Zhai Fanggui, who was humiliated, threw off her tragic fate and found a home; Chen Xueqing, who was cold, entrusted her child to Yu Qingxiu and died as a martyr. It can be said that these women are extremely individual, but there are types of deliberate, it seems to be independent for the sake of independence, and strong for the sake of being strong. In the new work "Fireworks" in 2020, the image of women is more complex and three-dimensional, rising to a state of atypicality. For example, Huang E, who opened a tavern and used a boat ferry, because of the casual life style of the relationship between men and women, was angry with her husband Lu Mutou, and in fear, she threw Lu Mutou's body into the Eagle Valley, took her son to Harbin with her son, and wanted to entrust her son to Liu Jianguo, who was famous for looking for lost children, and then went back to suicide to sleep with her husband. In Harbin, in the process of raising her children, Huang E encountered various life tests and new loves, and her atonement process changed to a new direction of life. Huang E's experience is not only a woman's experience, but also has the characteristics of a non-gender "person", she does not need to be labeled as a woman to live as a woman, her redemption, and Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment" is no different.
The author is not a sociologist, there is no special research on this, just take what is heard in daily life, triggered by Beauvoir's "Second Sex" to think about the current state of women's existence, the dimension is not grand, it is inevitable to generalize, hoping to throw bricks and lead to jade, leading to more insightful and in-depth thinking.
Time goes by. With the changes in China's social situation, the role of the female "other" is quietly being carried out, and its impact on society as a whole is not subversive at present. But the backwater is full of waves, and in the silence you will hear the faint thunder.