“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
selffreedomsociety
Paraphrase or translation
Philosopher
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Simone de Beauvoir
1908–1986 · Existentialism · Modern
Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex argues that woman is made by a situation, not issued as a finished essence. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. The introduction, in H. M. Parshley's historic English, says she is defined with reference to man, that the body is a situation, and that men confuse their point of view with absolute truth.
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Borde and Malovany-Chevallier's later translation changes the tone. Name the translator. The Ethics of Ambiguity, earlier, in Bernard Frechtman's English, asks what ethics is possible if existence is a lack of being and freedom has to will itself. To will oneself free is also to will others free. That sentence is the answer to the charge that existentialism is egoism.
She is not Sartre's echo, even where she uses his ontology and says so. The Coming of Age turns the same method, biology and culture together, onto old age. She wrote novels and memoirs as well as philosophy, and she did not think the memoirs replaced the arguments. A sentence of hers is usually the start of a description of constraint. Freedom, in her work, works inside a situation that is already shaped.
Start here
The introduction to The Second Sex, naming the translation, and the first chapter of The Ethics of Ambiguity.
The introduction is the argument people reduce to one sentence. The ethics shows the freedom she means, which is not a private property.
Quotations
“To will oneself free is also to will others free.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
freedomethicssociety
Paraphrase or translation
“She is defined and differentiated with reference to man and not he with reference to her; she is the incidental, the inessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the Absolute — she is the Other.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
societyselfpower
Paraphrase or translation
“The body is not a thing, it is a situation.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
selffreedomsociety
Paraphrase or translation
“Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
knowledgesocietypower
Paraphrase or translation
“To exist is to make oneself a lack of being; it is to cast oneself into the world.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
freedomselfmeaning
Paraphrase or translation
“The genuine human being will not agree to recognise any foreign absolute.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
freedomethicspower
Paraphrase or translation
“Old age is a biological phenomenon, but also a cultural fact.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
societyselfchange
Paraphrase or translation
“To will oneself free is to effect the transition from nature to morality by establishing a genuine freedom on the original upsurge of our existence.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
freedomethicsself
Paraphrase or translation
“He asserts himself as a pure internality against which no external power can take hold, and he also experiences himself as a thing crushed by the dark weight of other things.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism
selffreedommind
Paraphrase or translation
Key ideas
Becoming
Woman is a situation one is made into. Not a destiny, and not a costume chosen in the morning.
The Other
The neutral human has been silently male. She is the incidental against his Absolute.
Ambiguity
We are both subject and thing. Ethics starts by refusing to lie about either.
Freedom with others
Willing one's own freedom commits one to the freedom of others.
Major works
The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947)
Frechtman. Freedom, seriousness, and other people.
The Second Sex (1949)
Parshley, or Borde and Malovany-Chevallier. Say which.
The Coming of Age (1970)
La Vieillesse. Patrick O'Brian's English.
Influences
Influenced
- bell hooks
- Judith Butler
Common misreadings
- Becoming a woman is not unlimited self-invention. The book is detailed about constraint.
- The body as a situation is not a claim that bodies are optional.
- Willing others free is not a verbal trick. A freedom that needs others manageable has not, on her account, willed freedom.
Famous lines Simone de Beauvoir never said
None of the lines this library files for Simone de Beauvoir is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
The introduction to The Second Sex, naming the translation, and the first chapter of The Ethics of Ambiguity. The introduction is the argument people reduce to one sentence. The ethics shows the freedom she means, which is not a private property.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Simone de Beauvoir that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” (The Second Sex, volume 2 (1949), H. M. Parshley's English, Paraphrase or translation).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for Simone de Beauvoir is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
Becoming: Woman is a situation one is made into. Not a destiny, and not a costume chosen in the morning.