A French writer named Voltaire once said that “ Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd”.
adulthood, you think about it when you’re staring at the wall or maybe after you’ve just climbed a beautiful mountain and are looking out across a beautiful view. This is a question that has haunted humans for thousands of years. What is my purpose? Why am I here? To many, the existentialist’s answer may seem desolate, but if you think about it sensibly, it’s really not. The philosophy of Existentialism is a European philosophy that mainly began in the mid 19th and the 20th centuries and it became common after WWII, when many began to doubt the traditional idea of Divinity due to the horrifying years they lived during the war. As with most of the philosophies we discuss, existentialism is pretty dense.
This paper will try to cover some of the basics of existentialism. In addition, it will discuss the feminist existentialism, from Simone De Beauvoir perspective, that will be lately related the movie “Vivre Sa vie”
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The first philosopher to have actually identified as an existentialist is probably Jean-Paul Sartre who said, “What all the existentialists have in common is the fundamental doctrine that existence precedes essence.” Sartre meant that we are all born without any kind of collective purpose. We are born independent individuals rather than the labels, stereotypes, etc. that society or our family or whoever, decide to put on us. Our purpose or essence as Sartre describes is not what others place on to us, but instead ours to create through our own consciousness. The misconception here is that one might think they can define themselves as whatever they want, and thus be whatever they want. However, the reality is that while we may believe that we are of a certain spirit, we are in fact defined by our actions, and are responsible for them. So if a person believes they are kind, but acts cruelly, the existentialist will then define that person by that act, as cruel. Sartre states “man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges us in the world and defines himself afterwards.”
Another main idea in existentialism is the idea of the absurd. The absurd is the idea that the world is meaningless and in its meaninglessness the whole “bad things don’t happen to good people” flies out the window. In fact there is no such thing as a bad or a good person or a bad or a good situation. We are born into a world where our actions lack any coherent purpose, a world in which we are searching for meaning in a meaningless world. In contrast to what most of us think, Sartre believes that the amount of the freedom we have is horrifying. The fact that the world is meaningless, means that there are no guidelines or model code nor rules to live by. The best thing to do he states is to live authentically. By this he means that one has to create him or herself based on their true self – rather than the external pressures of the world – and then live accordingly.
Startre states that you are free therefore a man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself. There is no reality except in action, man is nothing else but the sum of his actions and nothing else but what his life is. Therefore if there’s no God, there are no values.
Nevertheless, the main case that is discussed in this paper is how feminism related to the existentialism?
Feminist philosophy refers to philosophy approached from a feminist perspective. It involves both attempts to use the methods of philosophy to further the cause of the feminist movements and attempts to criticize or reevaluate the ideas of traditional philosophy from within a feminist framework. These feminist movements have challenged traditional ideas of how we know things and argue that these traditional philosophical ideas are based on male assumptions and perspectives that ignore women’s voices.
The feminist philosophy was developed in the 1970s particularly in Europe. There are three main aspects for this philosophy. First, It investigates the existed bias against women. Second, it draws on philosophical concepts and theories to articulate feminist political claims and perspectives. Third, it provides philosophical analysis of concepts of sex and gender essentialism identity and sexuality concepts that are very widely used and theorized within feminist theory more broadly.
“One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” French existentialist and feminist philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, in 1949 to investigate popular definitions of femininity. She concluded that those definitions had been used to overwhelm women, through the ages. For De Beauvoir, the views of individuals are socially and culturally produced. Femininity is not inherent – it is a construct that has been learned through socialization – to keep men dominant. De Beauvoir argued that women have historically been deleted as inferior – and secondary – to men for three reasons. She explained that society teaches women, first, to fulfill a male’s need and therefore exist in relation to men. Second, it teaches them to follow external signs to seek validation of their worth. And third, it shows them that females have historically had far fewer legal rights, and therefore less public influence.
De Beauvoir uses a comparison – saying that a girl is ‘treated like a live doll’. And she meant by this that a doll is a powerful means of identification. Through it, the girl learns to identify with the condition of being dressed up, made pretty and smartened – whereas not having any agency of her own. She learns to objectify herself – just as men objectify women. The doll is passive – its role is to be dressed up, listen to its owner’s secrets, comfort her when she is lonely and lie at home when she’s at school. De Beauvoir argues that when the girl grows up, she will find herself in the same situation as her doll. As a woman, it will be her role to attract a husband with her beauty, and to maintain it to ensure he doesn’t stray, to quietly listen to his problems, and wait at home for him when he’s at work. De Beauvoir stated that even if a woman didn’t marry, she would still be held to male standards – through external pressures such as the beauty, diet and fashion industries – which are all complicit in spreading the objectification of women.
To achieve liberation, De Beauvoir believed, women must recognize many of these ‘social norms’ as constructions. Only then will they have the freedom to escape their context and determine their own destiny. Written against a backdrop of intense conservatism, The Second Sex was published just five years after French women had been granted the right to vote, at a time when few women worked. And it seems that De Beauvoir’s argument ‘one is not born, but rather becomes a woman’ is still valid today.
In the movie of Godard’s, “Vivre Sa Vie” (1962), a huge signs of existentialism were noticed in this movie. Like each person who questions to reasons of his existence, Nana, the main character was actually searching for a reason to live. Her absurd character led her to enter into the most shirked profession in recent eras. She entered the profession of prostitution, except that she accepted to be a prostitute regardless if this job signs negative references or not.
In his movie “Vivre Sa Vie”, Godard set his focus more on the way we live our life not what we truly are in reality.
According to many philosophers such as Startre, Heidegger, and Camus, each human being should live his life to the fullest and the way he wants it regardless if it conflicts the real world norms or not. Nana has always wanted to be an actress in the movies but she has never done anything to make her dream become true. After watching the movie she watched, Nana recognized that she can still change her life and whatever she wants to live her life to the fullest that’s why she directly accepted the job that has been offered to her. Accepting that job, changed her whole life.
In this movie, the rule isn’t respected and Nana is biased from the norms of the society. So instead of being and independent respectful woman, she choses to be a prostitute. In the pool hall while dancing to, music, Nana appeared to be really happy and it’s as if it was the first time she feels happiness in her entire life. This scene is the epicenter of the existential philosophy.Happily, Nana tries to grab clients’ attention with her femininity as if it was her armament. This use of femininity can be possibly related to the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir.
De Beauvoir argued the position of women in the world, and Nana came to embrace this idea and set herself free from the whole world.
In the scene, where Nana was sitting with an old man, where they went into deep talks, existentialism appeared to many times. First of all, when they were talking about existence and being human. Humans have a brain and have senses that allow the to communicate and share their thoughts easily. And that’s what differ humans from animals. Second, they discussed ontology. This topic examines the reasons why we live and where did come from. And here Nana showed not to be having all of the freedom that she wanted to reach. It’s as if she did not find out what her real dream is yet. Because becoming a prostitute did not erase the dream of becoming an actress is her mind.
To rap it up, Godard had sent the message regarding feminist existentialism in France through the life of a prostitute.
The process of existentialism and the life of Nana are identically related. Even though, in some cultures, being a prostitute is not really desirable, but Godard tried to show in his movie, that no matter what the occupation is, what really matters is to live life to the maximum.
