Defining Community for Beauvoir

A problem facing Beauvoir, and most authors who write on the subject of gender and sex, is how do you define a gender or sex? Of course there are many ways to define gender ranging from the biology of the person, to the outwards appearance of the person, to the preference of the person. However, in reading Beauvoir’s Second Sex, a new way to define gender was brought to my mind. Through analyzing how “Jews” and “Negroes “ are identified some light can be shed on how to define a community and then expand this understanding of community to being a woman. Granted there are many definitions to what makes a “woman” and I am not trying to state the one described below is in any way better than any other definition; however, I would like to make the argument that this definition is at least equally valid, and in some cases could serve as more useful. 

What makes someone a member of the Jewish community? I know many people, myself included, who don’t consider them religiously Jewish but still consider themselves part of the Jewish community, as I always tell people, “I’m ethnically Jewish, not religiously Jewish.” Likewise, just memorizing prayers and going through a conversion ceremony might make someone religiously Jewish, but not fully part of the Jewish community. So what makes someone part of the Jewish community? There are several factors at play here but the biggest two are self-recognition and a shared understanding of past experiences. I identify with the Jewish community not for any religious reasons but because I understand the past experiences of the Jewish people, I have seen the effects of these experiences, which last even until today, and I have let these experiences shape me. In order to be part of a community one must understand the past experiences of said community. That doesn’t mean just knowing dates in a history book, this person must understand it on a deeper level, to the point where the experiences of this community aren’t just a story they know from history class but is a story that stirs genuine emotion within them. It is only once a person truly understands a community’s past and decides to be identified with them, does he become part of that community. And at the same time, this defines the community: groups of people who identify together and who have a shared understanding of past experiences. 

Benedict Anderson, famous for his ideas on Imagined Communities, wrote “ Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined.” Someone becomes part of the Jewish community not simply through a conversion ceremony, someone becomes part of the Jewish community through their imagination; imaging themselves as part of the community and imagining themselves as a product to some extent of the past experiences of the other members of the community. When many people subscribe to these notions, a community is constructed.

This concept is applicable to African-Americans as well. Being part of the African-American community is more than having dark skin or ancestors from Africa, it requires self-recognition and an understanding of the past. I personally know people who are, according to lineage, African-American. However, they do not consider themselves as African-American, and rather identify as African or identify as American and I feel they are completely justified in this decision and are true members of their respective communities. If someone feels their understanding of past experiences is more inline with those of an American and not that of an African-American, they can identify with the American community, likewise if they feel their understanding of past experiences, and how it has effected their personal growth, is more similar to someone who is purely African, they can identify with the African community. Likewise, I believe that someone who is not African-American can identify, and truly be considered, part of the African-American community without being, according to lineage, African-American. Say someone with dark skin from Jamaica moved to the US at a young age and while there experienced a life typical of an African-American. They learned about the history of America in school, and the history of blacks in America, they learned about slavery, segregation, and also they felt the lasting effects of these institutions in their daily lives. Now they are not technically African-American, but their understanding of past experiences, and their own experiences too, has paralleled that of more African-Americans than Jamaicans, should they have less of a right to identify with and be a part of the African-American community than someone who is African-American by lineage but lived their entire life in another country and never really understood the African-American experience? I believe the answer is no. Being a member of a community is primarily about similar understandings of past experiences. 

Now the same is true for a woman and the woman community. An appropriate way to define this community is through past experiences. If someone identifies as a woman and truly understands the experiences of women, then they are part of that community. I would like to reiterate here that understanding the past experiences of women doesn’t mean reading about it in a textbook, it means feeling a true connection to those past experience in a way that has shaped the person’s personal development. Being a woman, by this definition, is independent of the biology, it is independent of dress, it is independent of other people ideas on your gender, it is, however, dependent on considering yourself a woman and truly understanding the past experiences of other people in the woman community and allowing those experiences to at least partially shape you. 

Recently Caitlyn Jenner was award Glamour’s “Woman of the year award” and there was a widely publicized reaction from Rose McGowan on this decision. Mrs. McGowan’s reaction reflects many of the ideas here on what it means to be part of a community and, more specifically to be a woman. “Caitlyn Jenner you do not understand what being a woman is about at all. You want to be a woman and stand with us —well learn us. We are more than deciding what to wear. We are more than the stereotypes foisted upon us by people like you. You’re a woman now? Well fucking learn that we have had a VERY different experience than your life of male privilege. Woman of the year? No, not until you wake up and join the fight. Being a woman comes with a lot of baggage. The weight of unequal history. You’d do well to learn it."

Based on the ideas of Mrs. McGowan and bits of what I’ve seen of Caitlyn Jenner, it seems she has yet to enter into the community of women. Yes, she recognizes herself as a woman, but that’s just part of it. She must also have her life impacted and her person further developed by the past experiences of woman, and it seems that this is not yet the case. Recently Mrs. Jenner stated, “The Hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear.” Once Mrs. Jenner further understands what it has meant to be a woman throughout history, than will she become closer to becoming a woman by the definition provided in this post. 

Using ideas from Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities and by drawing on the similarities between Women, Jews, and African American, we’re able to gain insight into a new way to define a community and specifically the woman community. Defining a member of this community as some one who both considers themselves a member of the community and has a true understanding of the past experiences of other members of this community. There are many different ways to define who is a woman, and for different situations different definitions suffice, but this definition is equal valid to any that exist and will find situations where it is particularly effective.