Our YOUNG RESEARCH SCHOLAR (YRS) of International Conference on Social Science and Humanities (ICSSH), Singapore 07-08 November 2016 Name: Paula Nicole C. Eugenio Affiliation: Master of Arts in Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas

1. YOUNG RESEARCH SCHOLAR (YRS)
International Conference on Social Science and Humanities (ICSSH),
Singapore
07-08 November 2016
Paula Nicole C. Eugenio
YRAICSSH1608052
Feminist Aesthetics in Philippine Literature: A Transition from Being an Object to
Becoming the Subject of Literature
Master of Arts in Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas
ABSTRACT: For the past decades it was undeniably evident that Literature has been
dominated by male writers. Most of the world-renowned literary icons from different fields of
Literature were males, such as William Shakespeare, Robert Frost, William Blake, T.S Elliot
and others. For the extent of the history of Literature there were some females who have
proven themselves to be worthy to be called a literary icon and were able to raise the
awareness of gender equality in the field of literature. Virginia Woolf in her A Room of
One’s Own, tackles the difficulties of being a female writer. It showed the differences
between the educational experiences of males and females; and the way males write about
females with such contempt and how little was written about the roles the females played in
the course of history. Simone de Beauvoir in her The Second Sex, expressed her main thesis
that men essentially subjugate women by distinguishing them, on every level, as the Other,
labelled entirely in opposition to men. Man occupies the role of the Self or subject; woman is
the object or the other. He is essential, absolute, and transcendent. She is inessential,
incomplete and mutilated. He extends out into the world to impose his will on it, whereas
woman is doomed to immanence, or inwardness. He creates, acts, invents; she waits for him
to save her . Madame de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex opens up the mind of every individual,
especially women, to look at themselves with such conviction that they are of equal value
with males. Though de Beauvoir does not really pertain to Literature, it still inspires many
female writers to step out of the shadows and show the society that they too can excel in the
field of literature subjugated by males.