While a male critic would see the stories as a romantic story, a feminist will see it as a story of oppression. ... Such a reader denounces and refuses to accept the cult of masculine virility and superiority that reduces woman to a sex object, a second sex, a submissive other. ... In her book, Lé Deuxiéme Sexe (1949; The Second Sex)2, Simone de Beauvoir argued that associating men with humanity more generally (as many cultures do) relegates women to an inferior position in society. ... However, the relationship between feminist and gender criticism is, in fact, complex...

• Word Count: 1975
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate