Simone de Beauvoir

Philosopher

1908-01-09 – 1986-04-14

Simone de Beauvoir was a French philosopher, writer, and feminist theorist associated with existentialism. She is best known for The Second Sex, a foundational text in modern feminist thought. Her work also includes influential novels, memoirs, and political essays.

Quotes by Simone de Beauvoir

One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.
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We will not let ourselves be intimidated by the number and violence of attacks against women; nor be fooled by the self-serving praise showered on the —real woman—; nor be won over by men's enthusiasm for her destiny, a destiny they would not for the world want to share.
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Ethics is the triumph of freedom over facticity.
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A woman's situation, i.e those meanings derived from the total context in which she comes to maturity, disposes her to apprehend her body not as instrument of her transcendence, but an object destined for another.
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In oppressing, one becomes oppressed. Men are enchained by reason of their very sovereignty; it is because they alone earn money that their wives demand checks, it is because they alone engage in a business or profession that their wives require them to be successful, it is because they alone embody transcendence that their wives wish to rob them of it by taking charge...
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; the man who does not understand a woman is happy to replace his subjective deficiency with an objective resistance; instead of admitting his ignorance, he recognizes the presence of a mystery exterior to himself: here is an excuse that flatters his laziness and vanity at the same time.
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The relation of woman to husband, of daughter to father, of sister to brother, is a relation of vassalage.
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: woman is an eminently poetic reality since man projects onto her everything he is not resolved to be.
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One understands now the drama that rends the adolescent girl at puberty: she cannot become —a grown-up— without accepting her femininity
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Taking without being taken in the anguish of becoming prey is the dangerous game of adolescent feminine sexuality.
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The feminine body is expected to be flesh, but discreetly so;
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The little girl feels that her body is escaping her, that it is no longer the clear expression of her individuality: it becomes foreign to her; and at the same moment she is grasped by others as a thing: on the street, eyes follow her, her body is subject to comments; she would like to become invisible; she is afraid of becoming flesh and afraid to show her flesh.
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The relation of woman to husband, of of daughter to father, of sister to brother, is a relation of vassalage.
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Scriassine studied me in turn. You're not so dumb, you know. Generally I dislike intelligent women, maybe because they're not intelligent enough. They always want to prove to themselves, and to everyone else, how terribly smart they are. So all they do is talk and never understand anything. What struck me the first time I saw you was that way you have of keeping quiet.
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If so few female geniuses are found in history, it is because society denies them any means of expression.
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[Woman] is simply what man decrees; thus she is called the sex, by which is meant that she appears essentially to the male as a sexual being. For him she is sex -- absolute sex, no less. She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute -- she is the Other.
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she gives birth in pain, she heals males' wounds, she nurses the newborn and buries the dead; of man she knows all that offends his pride and humiliates his will. While inclining before him and submitting flesh to spirit, she remains on the carnal borders of the spirit; and she contests the sharpness of hard masculine architecture by softening the angles; she introduces free luxury and unforeseen grace.
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In truth, to go for a walk with one's eyes open is enough to demonstrate that humanity is divided into two classes of individuals whose clothes, faces, bodies, smiles, gaits, interests, and occupations are manifestly different. Perhaps these differences are superficial, perhaps they are destined to disappear. What is certain is that right now they do most obviously exist.
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Girls are weighed down by restrictions, boys with demands - two equally harmful disciplines.
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I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself
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