1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910968061603321

Autore

Reineke Sandra

Titolo

Beauvoir and her sisters : the politics of women's bodies in France / / Sandra Reineke

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Urbana, : University of Illinois Press, c2011

ISBN

9786613077394

9781283077392

1283077396

9780252093227

0252093224

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (129 p.)

Disciplina

305.420944

Soggetti

Feminism - France - History - 20th century

Feminist literature - France - History and criticism

Citizenship - France

Women - Political activity - France

Women - Sexual behavior - France

Women - Identity

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [81]-97 ) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The body, writing, and citizenship rights -- Secondary citizens -- Citizen consumers -- Dissident citizens.

Sommario/riassunto

Beauvoir and Her Sisters investigates how women's experiences, as represented in print culture, led to a political identity of an "imagined sisterhood" through which political activism developed and thrived in postwar France. Through the lens of women's political and popular writings, Sandra Reineke presents a unique interpretation of feminist and intellectual discourse on citizenship, identity, and reproductive rights. Drawing on feminist writings by Simone de Beauvoir, feminist reviews from the women's liberation movement, and cultural reproductions from French women's fashion and beauty magazines, Reineke illustrates how print media created new spaces for political and social ideas. This sustained study extends from 1944, when women



received the right to vote in France, to 1993, when the French government outlawed anti-abortion activities. Touching on the relationship between consumer culture and feminist practice, Reineke's analysis of a selection of women's writings underlines how these texts challenged traditional gender models and ideals. In revealing that women collectively used texts to challenge the state to redress its abortion laws, Reineke renders the act of writing as a form of political action and highlights the act of reading as an essential but often overlooked space in which marginalized women could exercise dissent and create solidarity.