A Feminist Approach to the Political World and Appearances

Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, first published in 1958, considers the importance of worldy existence. She states: "with word and deed we insert ourselves into the human world."2 She then warns that, "A life without speech and without action...is literally dead to the world; it has ceased to be a human life because it is no longer lived among men."3 Speaking and acting allow us to appear before others and facilitate our life in a world made and inhabited by others who speak and act as well. Therefore, following Arendt, we might say that, to deny someone the ability to appear would be to deny his or her life among others.