Presenting Beauvoir as a feminist neglecting her defense and accusations of pedophilia

Abstract

Recent scientific literature analyzes the increasing citizens’ claim against human references that committed in history racist or sexist aggressions. Although newspapers have clarified that Simone de Beauvoir publicly defended the decriminalization of pedophilia and was condemned and removed from teaching due to her own case, few scientific studies acknowledge it. The scientific literature almost entirely situates her as a reference in feminism, portraying four pillars: 1) she was an example of the struggle for sexual freedom against harassment and abuse; 2) she was an anti-Nazi democrat; 3) she was the creator of modern feminism; 4) current feminists learned feminism from The Second Sex. This paper analyzes to what extent these pillars and the concealment of what she did and defended have been presented to individuals currently working on gender-related issues. The methodology includes an in-depth literature review and 15 communicative interviews with feminists from the second half of the 20th century and from the 21st century trained in different social sciences. Results show that de Beauvoir was presented as one of the main feminist references during most participants’ degrees and that they learned about her anti-feminist actions and standpoints in other academic and non-academic dialogic spaces based on scientific evidence.