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Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Privilege

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Sonia Kruks
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Abstract

How should socially privileged white feminists (and others) address their privilege? Often, individuals are urged to overcome their own personal racism through a politics of self-transformation. The paper argues that this strategy may be problematic, since it rests on an over-autonomous conception of the self. The paper turns to Simone de Beauvoir for an alternative account of the self, as “situated,” and explores what this means for a politics of privilege.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , Winter 2005 , pp. 178 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Hypatia, Inc.

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