'It has already been said that the Other is Evil; but as it is necessary for the Good, it reverts to the Good...and this is why woman embodies no set concept.'
- ‘The Second Sex, de Beauvoir (1949)
In an attempt to explain the coexistence of God and evil, St Augustine of Hippo (354AD – 430AD) famously deemed evil as ‘privatio boni’ – or, ‘the absence of good’. He writes: ‘When there is no privation of the good, there is no evil’ (‘Enchiridion’). His reasoning behind this was that God, a supremely perfect being, could not have created the evil in the world. Hence, since it could not have come about ex nihilo, the evil and suffering that we experience is not evil in itself, but simply a privation of good – an effect of the human corruption of God’s perfect creation. This view relies on a literal interpretation of the Genesis story, in which humanity falls from grace through the emergence of Original Sin.
Similarly, in her monumental feminist work ‘The Second Sex’, Simone de Beauvoir uses this reasoning to analogise the relationship between man and woman – between ‘the One’ and ‘the Other’. De Beauvoir’s argument arises from the view that woman’s nature is not her own, but instead an amalgamation of man’s rationalisation of woman’s character through patriarchal tradition: ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, woman’. The othering of woman essentially stems from the male-dominated narrative of the whole of history. Just as Augustine argued that evil is a privation of good, de Beauvoir seemed to equate patriarchy's concept of 'woman' as a privation of man, as she 'embodies no set concept' alone. Just as 'evil has no positive nature' (Augustine), woman too is negatively defined - not by what she has, but by what she lacks in comparison to man. This very view has been expressed by the majority of writers when writing of the nature of woman throughout history. Aristotle wrote that ‘The female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities’; Aquinas calls woman an ‘incomplete man; 19th century French historian calls her ‘woman, the relative being’. This is hardly a new idea.
This view of woman derives from the view of her as 'the Other' in a patriarchal society; ‘naturally’, de Beauvoir writes, 'the Other is Evil'. The concept of the ‘Other’ has been present throughout the course of history, and since man’s absolute rise to power in society, the ‘Other’ has been most thoroughly attributed to woman. This divide between ‘the One (or ‘the Self’) and ‘the Other’ has not always been distinguished in terms of sex, even though ‘alterity is the fundamental category of human thought’, as de Beauvoir rightly points out. Of course, there have always been divides – ancient civilisations polarised the sun and the moon, the day and the night, to mention a few. But the notion of a gendered division is not inherent to civilisation, but instead arose around the time of the Stone Age. With the invention of agricultural machinery and weaponry, man could finally acquire an excess of produce and materials – as a result, there emerged the first patriarchal class-society through the invention of private property, of which men are the only rightful owners. Hence, we can see that the division between man and women is not natural, nor biological, but economic.
In breaking down the concept of woman through the lens of historical materialism, de Beauvoir uncovers the implications of the male-dominated narrative of history, which has resulted in the status of woman being contingent on man, defined through his gaze and desires. This relational theory highlights and solidifies woman as ‘the Other’, not only in history (‘woman’s entire history has been written by men’), but also in the minds of women, creating a ‘false consciousness’.
When paired with Augustine's teaching that evil is not in itself a concept, but merely a lack of goodness, we can see how clearly this can also be applied to the relationship between man and woman. Woman, by custom, is defined through the male gaze ('Humanity is male, and man defines woman, not in herself, but in relation to himself'). This can be seen in customs such as the conversion of a woman's title from 'Miss' to 'Mrs' when married, the taking of her husband's name and many others. Eve is created from and for Adam; as punishment for men, the Pagan Gods create woman - both women in these instances also happen to be the ones who bring about evil into the world. The pairing of women with evil is age-old and is either the effect or the reinforcement of the view of women as ‘the Other’ of humanity.