Simone de Beauvoir’s “Other” and the Healthcare Practitioner
In Woman: Myth and Reality, Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986), the existentialist philosopher, feminist, and mate of John Paul Sartre, argues that women are accorded a mythological aura of indecipherable strangeness by the male of the species, which she calls the “other.” This status, in her view, sustained a paternalism in society, in which women were relegated to secondary status in comparison to men. The “other” is not, however, unique to women, according to Beauvoir, but, rather, serves as a mechanism to maintain secondary status for others in society – such as, the day laborer in comparison to the intellectual elite or foreigners of nearly every stripe.
At the time of its writing, others maintained that, for some women, this stereotype excused mercurial and illogical behavior that might serve her purpose at that moment but sustained the myth that so tarnished the totality of women during that era. I imagine the perfection of this was Bette Davis’ greeting of her suiter in The Cabin in the Cotton (1932) , when Madge says to Marvin, “I’d love to kiss you, but I just washed my hair…” Indeed, the publication of Woman: Myth and Reality did not stop the practice, which we see sustained in the female characters of Tennessee Williams.
Increasingly, I wonder if society has accorded “other” status to dyspeptic practitioners – who are revered and tolerated, simultaneously. The irascible doctor (often a surgeon) is a legendary stereotype, whose indefensible behaviors have been excused by the expression “Well, what do you expect? He is a surgeon.” Pleasantly, this negative stereotype rarely applies to female physicians, but , as short-sighted and reprehensible as they may be, stereotypes are not entirely the product of the observer’s delusional nature.
As with Beauvoir’s “other,” the sustaining of this persona serves the immediate purpose of the individual practitioner, in much the same way as the fighter jock stereotype benefited the Great Santini (Pat Conroy). Ultimately, however, it is the practitioner who suffers the greatest harm, which the original Santini (Donald Conroy) never recognized.
