(Paris, 1908-1986) French thinker and novelist, representative of the atheist existentialist movement and an important figure in the vindication of women’s rights. Originally from a bourgeois family, she stood out from an early age as a brilliant student. She studied at the Sorbonne and in 1929 she met Jean-Paul Sartre, who became her companion for the rest of her life.
He graduated in philosophy and until 1943 he devoted himself to teaching at the lycées of Marseilles, Rouen and Paris. His first work was the novel The Guest (1943), followed by The Blood of Others (1944) and the essay Pyrrhus and Cineas (1944). She participated intensely in the ideological debates of the time, harshly attacked the French right wing and assumed the role of a committed intellectual. In her literary texts she revised the concepts of history and character and incorporated, from an existentialist point of view, the themes of “freedom”, “situation” and “commitment”.
Together with Sartre, Albert Camus and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, among others, she founded the magazine Tiempos Modernos, whose first issue was published on October 15, 1945 and became a political and cultural reference of French thought in the mid-twentieth century. Subsequently, he published the novel All Men Are Mortal (1946), and the essays For a Morality of Ambiguity (1947) and America a Day (1948).
Her book The Second Sex (1949) was a theoretical starting point for various feminist groups, and became a classic work of contemporary thought. In it she elaborated a history of the social condition of women and analyzed the different characteristics of male oppression. She asserted that by being excluded from the processes of production and confined to the home and reproductive functions, women lost all social ties and with them the possibility of being free. She analyzed the gender situation from the point of view of biology, psychoanalysis and Marxism; she destroyed feminine myths, and urged the search for authentic liberation. She argued that the struggle for the emancipation of women was distinct from and parallel to the class struggle, and that the main problem to be faced by the “weaker sex” was not ideological but economic.
Simone de Beauvoir founded with some feminists the League of Women’s Rights, which set out to react firmly to any sexist discrimination, and prepared a special issue of Modern Times devoted to the discussion of the subject. She won the Prix Goncourt with The Mandarins (1954), in which she dealt with the difficulties of post-war intellectuals in assuming their social responsibility. In 1966 she participated in the Russell Tribunal, in May 1968 she showed solidarity with the students led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, in 1972 she presided over the Choisir association, in charge of defending free contraception, and until her last days she was a tireless fighter for human rights.
Her abundant testimonial and autobiographical titles include Memoirs of a Formal Young Woman (1958), The Fullness of Life (1960), The Force of Things (1963), A Very Sweet Death (1964), Old Age (1968), The End of Accounts (1972) and The Farewell Ceremony (1981).
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I’ve kinda just realized something about myself: I don’t consider myself a “fan” of anything. For all my life I’ve been pretty confused about how a person could care so much about something to be in its “fandom” or even write fanfiction about it, or go to conventions cosplaying, or whatever. Obviously I thought it was fine and good if you did, but I just couldn’t personally empathize with the feeling of “being a fan” and wanting to engage in those ways. I wouldn’t say I’m even a “fan” of my favourite game or movie or band or food or anything.
Like, it’s as if I was a kid playing with a bunch of toys. There might be a toy that I liked a lot more than others and played with it for a while; maybe even all day. But I don’t have any sense of attachment beyond merely getting a good feeling when I play with that toy. If somebody came along and ripped that toy apart in front of me, I’d be vaguely upset but I’d move on pretty quickly.
I think this kinda explains why I get so confused about people who desperately try and weld together “Oh, I’m such a Harry Potter fan!” and “But I love my trans comrades and Rowling is a TERF!” by doing all sorts of stuff like pretending other people wrote the books, so they can continue being a Harry Potter fan, which they seem to value a lot, I suppose. I used to enjoy the books and films in my teens, but when I heard that Rowling was a piece of shit, I was just like “Oh, okay then.” and put the toy down and didn’t think anything else of it. If I heard my favourite band was actually harbouring reactionaries then I would simply not listen to them anymore, unironically, and find a different one. There’s no internal sense of “Oh, but I’m part of the fandom, so all this drama is really pulling me apart, because I like the music but the person who makes is terrible…”
Or like, maybe I’m thinking of this entirely the wrong way and my sense of principles just massively overrides whatever things I enjoy? I don’t know.
Probably healthier, really. I can speak a couple of lines of Tolkien’s Elvish and have gone on three hour screeds about the politics, spirituality, and metaphysics of star wars. I’m not ashamed of that, but, you know… Nerds.
Being a fan is an easy connect to like minded people tbh, if you both like x (including football teams and the like) you can quickly bypass social awkwardness and share stuff around common interest. If that thing turns to be shit, it can be disheartening i guess. At the same time, football fans have managed to completely ignore all the stuff coming from their teams (looking at you premiere league), so i don’t see particular reason why harry potter fans would be any different.
I’ve been a fan of artists/franchises I later found out were problematic and I have to say, it was very easy to distance myself from them. Even if you still appreciate (a part of) the art, it’s very easy to stop supporting the artist by not talking about them, not paying for their products and not defending them against the people they are actively hurting! The people who are in denial about JKR are self righteous and ignorant. They have no excuse.
Me bumping Viper’s music for several years:
Me hanging out as of a week ago (who’s Viper?):
I have come to identify a bit with various entertainment/games (including Harry Potter 🤮), but never a stan. I don’t get fan fic though. Whenever I find out something I like is problematic I can drop it quick. Often I’ll even search out further reasons why it’s cringe. As someone familiar with the content, the criticism becomes more understandable and cutting.
I hate when I hear someone say (to take the JKR example) “I’m reading the series to my children” or “I’m so excited about the game.” When you bring up the controversy they’re like “I’m aware, I’m just not going to let that ruin it.” Like, have you considered that someone’s terrible ideology has an imprint and is transmitted by their art? It’s very annoying.
Yeah, I like a lot if things, some things quite a lot. But I’m not really a fan of anything
Imo it’s ok to like a work of art even if you hate the creator. Of course it’s good to think about how much of their ideology is baked into their work though.
Born to be haters…
I get this.
I have found certain artists or games interesting and delved into them deeply but it doesn’t last. Once I have digested a show game, or book I don’t obsess about it. If enjoyed it I may go back over it after some time has passed to see if I forgot bits or if there are new perspectives that I missed but not very often. I’ve played morrowind like 6 times but it gets longer between each play through. I’ve watched star gate SG1 2 whole times and up to season 9 twice but I’ll probably never do that again.
Music is a bit different. I love Alice Cooper’s music (the last couple years I have been realizing how Bigender he is.) and I do care about his life story and why he was singing about what he was singing about in each album because it adds more context and understanding. This goes for other musicians/bands I enjoy as well but I cant be bothered following what they are doing right at this moment to figure out what they are talking about when they drop a new album. If a new album comes out and I like it I may delve into it to find some of the deeper meaning but trying to preempt the understanding before knowing what I analyse is enjoyable or not seems dumb.
I enjoyed H.P. Lovecraft’s writing but the realization that he was a raging white supremacist really did kinda fuck that up. Now I cant really unsee it and it ruins the stuff I haven’t read before. The stuff I had read is in my mind and free of racism but I know if I reread it the racist ideas will come into focus and ruin it.
Talking with my lady she says she personalizes songs. The lyrics to her have nothing to do with what the artist was going thorough. They have a link to what she was going through at the time. So she hears 80s pop and remembers life before any trauma and the understanding of the realities of life. She hears pearl jam and thinks about a phase of her life where she was gaining independence. But she too is not a “fan” of things.
I don’t know what drives fandom. Maybe its just a desire for connection and understanding because the thought of nobody ever really understanding you is too much for some people.
Good post. I think there’s several different reasons. It’s a shortcut to identity, community. It gives people something to believe in. It can just simplify things. They have good feelings attached to X, so when X is thought of or spoke of or whatever it brings up good feelings.
For me I’d consider myself a fan of 3 different sports teams. I don’t watch the other teams playing, except if it’s something especially intriguing. Any info or news about other teams is always processed with a varying amount ok how does this relate to my team. Or how does this provide more context about what my team is doing. I like it. It’s fun. How much and how frequently I care is related to how good the team is, but I’ll always check in eventually even if they’re garbage lol.
I’d just call it a heuristic. Fandom is a heuristic that can simplify and/or strengthen someone’s ability to gaf about something.