a male idea , “ to accept the ideal of transcendence as somehow liberating places the feminist in a paradox ” ( Tong , 1989 : 213 ). This critique , however , falsely essentialises Beauvoir ’ s statements . It treats ideas and identities as free-floating and ignores the fact that they only “ arise in structured situations ” ( Stavro , 2007 : 450 ). Just because we currently view manhood in the realm of the transcendent and womanhood in the realm of the immanent does not mean that we always have to do so . It also ignores the fact that the self-asserting man who requires a hierarchical contrast with the “ other ” is also lacking in a model of true autonomy . As she points out , the “ Other is , in every case , his own alienated self ” ( Butler , 1986 : 43 ). Following Hegel , the master ( man ) for De Beauvoir can never truly be free , for the “ master requires an equal to respect his subjectivity ” ( Stavro , 2007 : 451 ).
It is clear then that understanding what it is to be a man or what it is to be a woman as either pure transcendence or pure immanence is a form of bad faith : a denial of the ambiguity of the human condition . Rather than understanding gender as a polarity between “ masculine disembodiment ” on the one side and “ feminine enslavement to the body ” on the other , De Beauvoir suggests an alternative : “ the notion
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of body as a situation ” ( Hekman , 2015 : 147 ). It is this focus on humans in particular situations in contrast to a focus on abstract individuals that allows De Beauvoir to explain how gender can be both choice and construction . By understanding the “ body as situation ” then , we can explain how such constructions can be subverted without making women into men .
According to Butler , the “ body as situation ” has two meanings . Firstly , the body is a “ locus of cultural interpretations ” which have “ already been located and defined within a social context ” ( Butler , 1986 : 45 ). Secondly , the body is the situation of “ having to take up and interpret that set of received interpretations ” ( ibid .). Existing in one ’ s body becomes a way of taking up , reinterpreting or even subverting received gender norms . The body becomes an “ occasion for meaning ” ( Butler , 1986 : 46 ). To become a woman then , is both to submit to a cultural situation and to create one . As Butler concludes : “ revealing … nature ’ s surface as cultural invention , Simone de Beauvoir gives us a potentially radical understanding of gender ” ( Butler , 1986 : 49 ).
Recognising the importance of Beauvoir ’ s theory of intersubjectivity and the “ body in situation ” also