Simone de Beauvoir

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How do de Beauvoir's 'The Woman Destroyed' and 'The Coming of Age' reflect her aim to challenge societal attitudes towards aging and women?

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Simone de Beauvoir, a prominent French existentialist philosopher, feminist, and author, wrote extensively about the condition of women in society, and later in her life, about the condition of the elderly. Both "The Woman Destroyed" and "The Coming of Age" can be seen as part of a wider project to expose and critique societal attitudes that devalue certain groups of people.

"The Woman Destroyed," a collection of three novellas, examines the lives of middle-aged women who find themselves unfulfilled and marginalized. Each of the women in these stories struggles with the expectations society places on them as women, wives, and mothers, and each experiences a sense of loss, isolation, and despair as they confront the reality of their lives. De Beauvoir uses these stories to explore the ways in which societal expectations and norms can limit and destroy women's sense of self.

In "The Coming of Age," de Beauvoir turns her attention to the elderly, arguing that society's negative attitudes towards aging and the elderly are both harmful and unjust. She critiques the way society tends to view the elderly as burdensome or useless, and she argues for a more nuanced and compassionate understanding of aging.

When read together, these works offer a powerful critique of the ways in which society marginalizes and devalues certain groups of people—specifically, middle-aged women and the elderly. They also demonstrate de Beauvoir's commitment to shedding light on these issues and breaking the silence that often surrounds them.

In terms of addressing the "double standards" of ageing for women, de Beauvoir is acutely aware of how ageing affects women differently. In both "The Woman Destroyed" and "The Coming of Age," she highlights how women, as they age, often find themselves facing a double bind: they are simultaneously devalued for no longer conforming to youthful standards of beauty and femininity, and dismissed or ignored because of their age. This intersection of ageism and sexism is a central theme in de Beauvoir's work, and her exploration of it in these texts contributes significantly to her broader project of exposing and challenging societal oppression.

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The generated response offers a thorough exploration of the questions of aging and ageism in these works by Simone de Beauvoir. The response is correct in explaining how both works come together to show the marginalization of elderly women and the double standards they face as they age in a society that values youth and beauty. Let’s fill out the response a bit more by adding a few details.

First, it is important to note that these works are of vastly different genres, so they present the author’s views in diverse ways. The Woman Destroyed is a collection of three novellas, each of which centers on an aging woman who has suffered a major loss in her life. One narrator has experienced a break with her son and daughter-in-law. Another lost her daughter through suicide and struggles in other relationships after that. The third woman realizes that her husband is cheating on her. All of these women feel as though they have lost the meaning of their lives and wonder if they are too old to regain it. The Coming of Age, on the other hand, is a work of nonfiction in which the author explores the lives of senior citizens and the way society treats them.

In both books, Simone de Beauvoir examines issues that most people do not even think about. She shows how older people get shoved aside both through the stories in the novella and the facts in the nonfiction work. She exposes double standards and challenges readers to examine and perhaps change their own perspectives. She asks younger readers to step into the perspectives of older people. This is her way of breaking the silence.

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