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Who’s to say what makes a woman ‘womanly’? In her book The Second Sex (1949), the French existentialist writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir argued that femininity isn’t innate, but instead foisted upon females from birth. According to de Beauvoir, by pressuring women to conform to male stereotypes of beauty, patriarchal societies have subjugated women, robbing them of their autonomy and objectifying them in ways that belittle their abilities and their intellect. De Beauvoir’s existentialism, however, offered a way out: women are free, she wrote, to reject male views on how they should look and behave, and doing so allows them to become more equal.
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Future of technology
Artificial ‘creativity’ is unstoppable. Grappling with its ethics is up to us
23 minutes
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Wellbeing
Through a poetic account of childhood trauma, one woman reclaims her past
28 minutes
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Politics and government
‘Without a poster, you don’t exist!’ – on the curious political banners of Mumbai
20 minutes
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Earth science and climate
A biologist on the sorrows of documenting the Great Salt Lake’s collapse
6 minutes
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Thinkers and theories
Jeremy Bentham was consumed by creating a perfect prison. Here’s the result
4 minutes
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Film and visual culture
The old-time cinema experience endures in a quiet corner of Japan
5 minutes
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Gender and identity
‘I didn’t fall in love with a couple of body pieces’ – on marriage and transition
3 minutes
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Logic and probability
Chew over the prisoner’s dilemma and see if you can find the rational path out
6 minutes
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Architecture
The radically impractical 18th-century architect whose ideas on beauty endure
19 minutes