*Taken from another section of the course.

One of the excerpts that we will be reading this week is the “Introduction to the Reading of Hegel,” written by Alexandre Kojeve. This excerpt looks at and analyzes the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who was a German philosopher in the 19th century. One of Hegel’s most notable philosophies is the Master / slave dialect. This dialect, as described in the reading, looks at the idea of having two self-consciousnesses and how they interact with each other. The struggle between the two is built on the fact that each must see each other not as a threat to itself. Hegel describes this relationship similar to the relationship between a master and its slave, thus making the Master / slave dialect.

Between a master and a slave, they are in a relationship where they are both dependent on each other; the master has the power of its slave, yet only has that power if the slave recognizes to themselves that they are powerless to their master. In an article written by Andrew Cole apart of the Duke University Press, he has an alternative way to describe the relationship “The truth of the master reveals that he is the slave, and that the slave is revealed to be the master of the master” (Cole 579). The overarching idea of the Master / slave dialect is that both, self conscious or master/slave are dependent on each other whether that is how it was originally intended to be.

To look at this Master / slave dialect in a much larger scale, it can be seen prevalent in todays society through capitalism. Capitalism is the “economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state” (Oxford Languages). The social relationship of Capitalism consists of wage laborers and capitalists. Capitalists seem to be in the dominant position due to fact that they control the wage laborer’s work and pay. However, if you cut the jobs of workers, or lower their pay, then those workers loose their ability to buy the capitalists product. This contradiction of relationships is what Hegel’s refers to as the Master / slave dialect; the relationship between two parties which rely on each other for the good of their own.

Other articles to check out:

Capitalism’s Master/Slave Relationship and Hegel’s Dialectic

Hegel on the Master-Slave Relation

Works Cited:

Cole, Andrew. “What Hegel’s Master/Slave Dialect Really Means.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Volume 34, Number 3, Fall 2004. Duke University Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/174870/pdf.

Feilmeier, J.D. “Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialect: the search for self-consciousness.” Central College. Accessed Aug 27, 2021. https://central.edu/writing-anthology/2019/07/08/hegels-master-slave-dialectic-the-search-for-self-consciousness/#:~:text=Hegel’s%20Master%2DSlave%20dialectic%20tells,life%2Dand%2Ddeath%20struggle.&text=Self%2Dconsciousness%20indicates%20that%20an,the%20only%20point%20of%20view.

Hegel’s text, published in the early 19th century, discusses the master-slave dialectic. This is the idea that man establishes his “self-consciousness” by identifying those apart from him as the “other” or “non-I”. De Beauvoir’s text, published in 1949, takes this dialectic and applies it to male and female relationships. Therefore, I will discuss such relationships in the time period of De Beauvoir’s text (specifically 1930s and 40s) in order to provide context.

In the early 1930s and prior to, a “real man” was typically seen as a person with pure authority and power, who was tasked with decision making for women (Encyclopedia.com), while women were seen as domestic and the primary caretaker. However, the Depression (1929-1939) brought about a change in this dynamic with the increased dependence on women. Many of the “pink collar” jobs were impacted less by the Depression than jobs in the heavy industry, which men typically took on (Encyclopedia.com). Still, women and men were placed in completely different categories, with women still facing harsh restrictions. Many men during this time felt threatened and shamed by their “lost masculinity” and increasing dependence on women. Due to this, many films which highlight naive and domestic women, such as the famous Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), emerged (Maslin). It’s important to note that such films attempted to reverse the reality for men in the Depression by offering a woman who was dependent on a man.

Image of Snow White from the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

WWII (1939-1945) changed gender roles in several ways. As more men were deployed in the war, the need for labor from women at the homefront increased. One of the most popular war icons was Rosie the Riveter. She represented a strong, assertive woman who worked during WWII. Although many women still worked “pink collar” jobs, WWII opened up job opportunities in areas previously designated to men, such as the heavy industry and wartime production plants (The National WWII Museum ). Still, employers attempted to maintain pre-war gender roles by separating females and males in the workplace and paying women lower wages. After the war, many women were pushed out of their previous, higher wage jobs into less secure, “pink collar” jobs in an attempt to give men back their jobs (May). Nonetheless, it is undeniable that there was a change in and questioning of previously set gender roles during the time of De Beauvoir’s text.

“We Can Do It!” Poster closely associated with Rosie the Riveter

Citations:

Beauvoir, Simone de, and Caroline Toy. The Second Sex.

“Gender on the Home Front.” The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, The National World War II Museum, www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/gender-home-front.

“Gender Roles and Sexual Relations, Impact of the Great Depression on .” Encyclopedia of the Great Depression. . Encyclopedia.com. 16 Aug. 2021 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Kojève, Alexandre, and Raymond Queneau. Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit. New York: Basic Books, 1969

Maslin, Janet. “Snow White Is No Feminist.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 July 1987, www.nytimes.com/1987/07/19/movies/film-view-snow-white-is-no-feminist.html.

May, Elaine Tyler. “How Did World War II Change Women’s Employment Possibilities?” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tupperwaremay/#:~:text=How%20did%20World%20War%20II,been%20previously%20closed%20to%20women.

Sharpsteen, Ben, et al. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. RKO Radio Pictures, 1937.

“‘We Can Do It!”.” National Museum of American History, americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_538122.