Historical Influence

I agree Barbara, that Beauvoir brings up the story of Adam and Eve as part of her explanation why women are not subordinated due to some specific event, rather than offering religious tales as historical justification for women's situation. However, although Beauvoir does seem to touch on points of biological determinism/social Darwinism I interpreted this (perhaps incorrectly) as her critically evaluating arguments that dominate in society in attempts to justify women's subordination. I feel that Beauvoir was touching on these arguments to show the reader that such explanations are inadequate, that a woman's subordination is not intrinsically linked to her biological state, although this is what we may have been led to believe. Ultimately what I derived from Beauvoir's piece was that women must contest their subordination, that they must align themselves with each other and posit themselves as subjects, effectively turning men into the "other".