We Are Not Born Submissive

Manon Garcia is assistant professor of philosophy at Yale University.

"In We Are Not Born Submissive, Garcia explains that the feminist agenda has many components but there are (at least) two of which are at the fore: shedding light on the oppression of women qua women, and fighting against this oppression... Using the theoretical framework of philosopher, Simone de Beauvoir and others, Garcia theorizes this fascinating dynamic in its full complexity. By looking at male dominance not from the point of view of those who dominate but from those who submit, Garcia avoids describing the exterior, objective subordination of women. Instead, she is able to examine what exactly it means to be a woman under male dominance, thereby describing the subjective experience beneath domination. It inevitably consists of not starting from the idea that this submission is inherent within women, nor that it is contrary to their nature, or immoral, or the result of a false, oppressed understanding established by the patriarchy. On the contrary, the goal of the book is to ask without any preconceptions what this submission might be that women experience, how it manifests itself, how it is lived, and how it can be explained"