Woman in Development & Politics

Woman in Development & Politics

Re-reading Beauvoir’s Existentialist Feminism in Light of Digital Biopolitics: The Shift from “Absolute Other” to “Algorithmic Objectification”

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Roghayeh Salimi 1
Mohammad Tohidfam 2
1 PhD Student, Department of Political Science, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Department of Political Science, Islamic Azad University, Iran
10.22059/jwdp.2026.411958.1008610
Abstract
This article examines the paradox of digital space, which purports to be a platform for women’s self-expression but, in reality, perpetuates and complicates long-standing mechanisms of gender domination. The necessity of this research is twofold: firstly, to provide an analysis that transcends conventional sociological or psychological approaches by utilizing the depth of critical philosophy; and secondly, to urgently address the psychosocial consequences of inhabiting digital environments that are increasingly engineered by commercial and androcentric algorithms. The investigation’s objective is to investigate the evolution of Simone de Beauvoir’s fundamental concepts of “Absolute Other,” “the gaze,” and “immanence” in response to the digital lifeworld. Using an analytical-interpretive approach and examining examples such as the digital standardization of the female body, the attention economy on image-centric platforms, and organized cyber violence, this article argues for its central thesis that “Data-driven patriarchy” institutionalizes a new form of “othering” through the mechanism of “algorithmic objectification.” The key discovery demonstrates that the fundamental logic of digital platforms not only reinforces traditional gender stereotypes but also deepens them at a structural and invisible level by reducing the female subject to a mere “data object,” which is predictable and manageable. Consequently, the article contends that a liberatory response to this challenge necessitates the completion of Beauvoir’s project by fostering “algorithmic awareness” as a fundamental and inseparable aspect of feminist agency in the modern era and the development of a practical “digital existentialist ethics.”
Keywords
">Simone de Beauvoir, ">Existentialist Feminism, ">Digital Biopolitics, ">Absolute Other, ">Algorithmic Objectification
Subjects
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Woman in Development & Politics
Volume 24, Issue 3
Summer 2026
Pages 495-519