In the Labyrinth, Swords and Thread: Beauvoir and Haraway, Otherness at, and Alterity in, Social Theory

Abstract

In this article I will present a counterpoint between notions of ‘situation’ by Simone de Beauvoir and ‘intersections’ by Donna Haraway, which express ideas of relation. I will argue that woman for Beauvoir is like cyborg for Haraway. Beauvoir distinguishes the situation of women, Jews and blacks by considering the relationship between situations and historical consciousness and / or biological weapons. For Beauvoir, the biology in situation appears as construction of a mythical identity to be overcome for the formation of the subject. Alternatively, Haraway uses the cyborg as a narrative of how the biological and social reality of race and gender are into a network of interactions, information and semiology. With this claiming for alterity inside the relation and constitution of the “object”, both authors bring important challenges to two of the most important issues of social theory. Moreover, they do it without the hard dichotomy between reality and fiction, nature and culture, literature and science.