Quotation
Last reviewed:
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
Simone de Beauvoir · Existentialism · Modern · 1949
What does it mean?
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Woman, in the sense that matters here, is a situation one is made into, through myths, laws, and habits, not a biological destiny issued at birth. A rival reading hears unlimited self-invention, as if situation were a costume you choose in the morning. The Second Sex is detailed about constraint. Freedom works inside a situation that is already shaped. Another reading hears a denial of the body. She is not denying sex. She is denying that sex arrives already narrated as the eternal feminine.
Did Simone de Beauvoir really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. The French is On ne naît pas femme: on le devient. Parshley's 1953 English is the sentence everyone knows. The 2009 Borde and Malovany-Chevallier translation shifts the emphasis ('one is not born, but rather becomes, woman'). Both are translations of a sentence she wrote. Parshley's version is cited here because it is the historic English line, with that caveat.
Where it comes from
The Second Sex, volume 2 (1949), H. M. Parshley's English
Approximate date: 1949.
How to use it
When a school in Bradford meets a 'natural' expectation of how a girl should be, ask who taught it and what it costs. The sentence says the expectation has a history. It does not say the pupil can exit the history by deciding, on the walk home, that the history is over.
A mindset reading
Becoming is not a slogan of self-creation. Constraint is the book's material. If the sentence is doing motivational work, it has left the book. The book is long because the situation is detailed, not because she was reluctant to be clear.
Understand the philosophy
The Second Sex distinguishes sex from the myth, and argues that woman has been made the Other. Existentialist freedom is the tool. The evidence is legal, literary, and domestic. The tool without the evidence is the poster.
- self
- freedom
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. Woman, in the sense that matters here, is a situation one is made into, through myths, laws, and habits, not a biological destiny issued at birth. A rival reading hears unlimited self-invention, as if situation were a costume you choose in the morning. The Second Sex is detailed about constraint. Freedom works inside a situation that is already shaped. Another reading hears a denial of the body. She is not denying sex. She is denying that sex arrives already narrated as the eternal feminine.
Did Simone de Beauvoir really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. The French is On ne naît pas femme: on le devient. Parshley's 1953 English is the sentence everyone knows. The 2009 Borde and Malovany-Chevallier translation shifts the emphasis ('one is not born, but rather becomes, woman'). Both are translations of a sentence she wrote. Parshley's version is cited here because it is the historic English line, with that caveat.
Which work is it in?
The Second Sex, volume 2 (1949), H. M. Parshley's English Approximate date: 1949.