We Are Not Born Submissive: How Patriarchy Shapes Women''s Lives

A philosophical exploration of female submission, using insights from feminist thinkersespecially Simone de Beauvoirto reveal the complexities of womens reality and lived experience

What role do women play in the perpetuation of patriarchy? On the one hand, popular media urges women to be independent, outspoken, and career-minded. Yet, this same media glorifies a specific, sometimes voluntary, female submissiveness as a source of satisfaction. In philosophy, even less has been said on why women submit to men and the discussion has been equally contradictorysubmission has traditionally been considered a vice or pathology, but female submission has been valorized as innate to womens nature. Is there a way to explore female submission in all of its complexitynot denying its appeal in certain instances, and not buying into an antifeminist, sexist, or misogynistic perspective?

We Are Not Born Submissive offers the first in-depth philosophical exploration of female submission, focusing on the thinking of Simone de Beauvoir, and more recent work in feminist philosophy, epistemology, and political theory. Manon Garcia argues that to comprehend female submission, we must invert how we examine power and see it from the womans point of view. Historically, philosophers, psychoanalysts, and even some radical feminists have conflated femininity and submission. Garcia demonstrates that only through the lens of womens lived experiencestheir economic, social, and political situationsand how women adapt their preferences to maintain their own well-being, can we understand the ways in which gender hierarchies in society shape womens experiences. Ultimately, she asserts that women do not actively choose submission. Rather, they consent toand sometimes take pleasure inwhat is prescribed to them through social norms within a patriarchy.

Moving beyond the simplistic binary of natural destiny or moral vice, We Are Not Born Submissive takes a sophisticated look at how female submissiveness can be explained.