| Summary: | ix, 105 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. === In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir uses enslavement to the species to shape
her concepts of animality, the female body, and immanence. The connection of these
~oncepts to reproductive processes links them together in problematic ways. Beauvoir
responds by diminishing the ontological force of the female body. I begin this thesis by
showing how varying degrees of enslavement to the species detennine sexual difference
and the position of organisms on the evolutionary ladder. Next, I illustrate how animality,
immanence, and the female body are closely linked together by their similar relationship
to the species. I follow with the claim that Beauvoir's notion of the human existent
requires a distancing from the realm of immanence and the power of reproduction
through the risking of one's life. Finally, I demonstrate how Beauvoir downplays the
ontological weight of the female body in her positing of early woman as an existent. === Ted Toadvine, Chair of the Examining Committee
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