But, instead of contesting the male sovereignty, Beauvoir claims that the woman succumbs to it. ![]() Her “sexed body”, made for giving life, dooms her into a life of immanence. Hence, she finds meaning only in relation to the man. She is the Object, submissive, dependent and inessential. Woman, however, is the Other or the “Second Sex”. In risking his life, he moves towards transcendence (Beauvoir 1949, p. He is the Subject, dominant, independent and essential to man-kind. Beauvoir (1949) uses this Master/Slave dialectic to describe the relationship between men and women. ![]() Through this, two separate parts emerge out of the original entity (thinkPhilosophy 2017). It also “cancels” itself out from the Master, and lets the Master go free. Soon the Slave becomes “one with itself again through the cancelling of its otherness” (Hegel 1807, #181). The Slave “re-discovers” itself and, thus grows more independent. Simultaneously, the Slave learns more about the world around itself and starts to create its own identity through the work/labour it performs. Slowly, the Master gets wrapped up in the pleasure and enjoyment it receives from the Slave’s service and, therefore, grows increasingly dependent on the Slave. As the inessential being, the Slave is forced to serve the Master in fear. In this mutually dependent dialectic, the Master holds power over the Slave since it is the essential being. In The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel (1807) makes an important distinction between two self-consciousnesses in one entity: the Master as the One and the Slave as the Other.
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