The Phenomenal Body is not born; it comes to be a Bodysubject. Interpreting The Second Sex

Abstract

Phenomenology distinguishes body-object (Körper ) from lived body (Leib); it is interested in the latter, in the body that manifests itself to us in our lived experiences and gives them expression. This phenomenal body is the zero point of our lives, the anchor of our existence. Beauvoir’s phenomenology applies it to
sexual difference.
This contribution continues Beauvoir’s hermeneutic by focusing on her wellknown declaration: « On ne naît pas femme: on le devient », keeping in mind that interpretations are given from and for certain situations; our situation is that of the 21st century and of phenomenological and feminist investigations. Given that translation is itself a mode of interpretation, I will show how The Second Sex has contributed to an understanding of the becoming-woman. To do this, first I will give an account of my hermeneutic understanding of translation. Next, I will outline the phenomenological “style” of Beauvoir and the reciprocal influence between her and Merleau-Ponty in order to open thepossibility of sexual difference without determinisms.