The Second Sex's critique of patriarchy continues to challenge social, political and religious categories

used to justify women's inferior status. What is perhaps the most famous line of The Second Sex,
translated in 1952 as One is not born but becomes a womanand in 2010 as One is not born but
becomes woman, is credited by many as alerting us to the sex-gender distinction.By not accepting the
common sense idea that to be born with female genitalia is to be born a woman this most famous line of
The Second Sex pursues the first rule of phenomenology: identify your assumptions, treat them as
prejudices and put them aside; do not bring them back into play until and unless they have been
validated by experience.

Generally for existentialists, one is not born anything: everything we are is the result of our choices, as
we build ourselves out of our own resources and those which society gives us. We don t only create our
own values, we create ourselves. Simone de Beauvoir, although an avowed life-long existentialist, posits
limits to this central existentialist idea of self-creation and self-definition, qualifying the absolute
freedom Jean-Paul Sartre posited in Being and Nothingness. By contrast de Beauvoir presents an
ambiguous picture of human freedom, in which women struggle against the apparent disadvantages of
the female body.

Women do not choose to think about their bodies and bodily processes negatively; rather they are
forced to do so as a result of being embedded in a hostile patriarchal society. On this view the body is
not just the thing we can prod and poke, it is shaped by a plethora of perceptions: if we feel bad about it,
it becomes a bad thing; if we feel good about it, it becomes a good thing. But the way we think about
it is not a matter of free choice unless we live in a society which gives space for that freedom. What
feminist philosophers like de Beauvoir aim to do is to open up a space for that freedom to flourish.

Becoming A Woman: Simone de Beauvoir on

Female Embodiment
Felicity Joseph finds that sometimes its hard to become a woman.

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman

Simone de Beauvoir

Generally for existentialists, one is not born anything: everything we are is the result of our
choices, as we build ourselves out of our own resources and those which society gives us. We
don t only create our own values, we create ourselves. Simone de Beauvoir, although an avowed
life-long existentialist, posits limits to this central existentialist idea of self-creation and self-
definition, qualifying the absolute freedom Jean-Paul Sartre posited in Being and Nothingness.
By contrast de Beauvoir presents an ambiguous picture of human freedom, in which women
struggle against the apparent disadvantages of the female body.

In The Second Sex, her most famous work, de Beauvoir sketches a kind of existential history of a
woman s life: a story of how a womans attitude towards her body and bodily functions changes
over the years, and of how society influences this attitude. Here de Beauvoir raises the core
question of female embodiment: Are the supposed disadvantages of the female body actual
disadvantages which exist objectively in all societies, or are they merely judged to be
disadvantages by our society? She answers this question by exploring case studies of the various
stages of female life. In these case studies the female body is presented as both positive and
negative, and women as both oppressed and free. A woman s body is the site of this ambiguity,
for she can use it as a vehicle for her freedom and feel oppressed by it. There is no essential truth
of the matter: it depends upon the extent to which a woman sees herself as a free subject rather
than as the object of society s gaze.

Sartre observed that whatever we perceive, including other people, is rendered as an object to
our gaze and is defined by us. De Beauvoir takes up this idea and applies it to mens perception
of women. The very concept of woman, de Beauvoir argues, is a male concept: woman is
always other because the male is the seer: he is the subject and she the object the meaning of
what it is to be a woman is given by men.

De Beauvoir argues that it is not the biological condition of women per se that constitutes a
handicap: it is how a woman construes this condition which renders it positive or negative. None
of the uniquely female experiences the development of female sex organs, menstruation,
pregnancy, menopause have a meaning in themselves; but in a hostile or oppressive society
they can come to take on the meaning of being a burden and disadvantage, as women come to
accept the meanings a patriarchal society accords them.

De Beauvoir points out that pre-adolescent boys and girls are really not very different: they have
the same interests and the same pleasures (The Second Sex, p295, Translation and Ed, H.M.
Parshley, Vintage, 1997). If the initial psychological differences between young boys and girls
are relatively trivial, what then causes them to become important? If one becomes a woman,
how does this becoming happen?

The Flesh and the Feminine

De Beauvoir argues that as a girls bodily development occurs, each new stage is experienced as
traumatic and demarcates her more and more sharply from the opposite sex. As the girl s body
matures, society reacts in an increasingly hostile and threatening manner. De Beauvoir talks
about the process of becoming flesh, which is the process whereby one comes to experience
oneself as a sexual, bodily being exposed to another s gaze. This does not have to be a bad thing;
but unfortunately, young girls are often forced to become flesh against their will:
The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her on the street men follow her with
their eyes and comment on her anatomy. She would like to be invisible; it frightens her to
become flesh and to show flesh (p333).

There are many more such events in a growing girls life which reinforce the belief that it is bad
luck to be born with a female body. The female body is such a nuisance, a pain, an
embarrassment, a problem to deal with, ugly, awkward, and so on. Even if a girl tries to forget
that she has a female body, society will soon remind her. De Beauvoir gives several examples of
this: the mother who frequently criticises her daughter s body and posture, thus making her feel
self-conscious; the man on the street who makes a sexual comment about a young girls body,
making her feel ashamed; and a girls embarrassment as male relatives make jokes about her
menstruation.

However, de Beauvoir also gives positive examples of having a female body. She shows us that
there are situations in which young women can be comfortable in their bodies indeed, not only
comfortable, but joyous and proud. Consider a girl who enjoys walking in the fields and woods,
feeling a profound connection to nature. She has a great sense of happiness and freedom in her
body which she doesn t feel in a social environment. In nature there are no males to gaze upon
her, there are no mothers to criticise her. She no longer sees herself through others eyes, and
thus is finally free to define her body for herself.

But she cannot escape to the natural world forever. As part of belonging to a patriarchal society
she must eventually undergo a further traumatic event initiation into sexual intercourse.
Intercourse is physically more traumatic for girls because it involves penetration and usually
some corresponding pain. Culturally it is more traumatic because girls are kept in a greater state
of ignorance than boys, and are often ill-prepared for what is to come. Culturally too, there are
certain techniques of sexual intercourse which predominate, which may not be ideal for female
enjoyment and orgasm (for instance, man on top). De Beauvoir points out that girls sexual
education tends to be mainly of the romantic sort, which emphasises the courtship period and
the pleasure of gentle caresses, but never the penetration. Thus when sex finally happens, it
seems a world away from the romantic fantasies a girl has grown up with. De Beauvoir dryly
observes that for the shocked young woman love assumes the aspect of a surgical operation
(p404).

Ultimately, is it the biological penetration itself which causes the distress, or is it the culturally-
engineered ignorance of young women? De Beauvoir thinks the biological facts need not be
traumatic: the distress is due to a lack of generosity in the man s sexual behaviour, combined
with the womans fear of being objectified before an aggressive sexual gaze. She suggests that
the way to a more positive sexual experience for both genders is through each partner acting in
erotic generosity towards the other, rather than in selfish sensuality.

The experience of pregnancy is more positive, yet still an ambiguous one for women: it can be
both an unfair invasion of her body and at the same time a wonderful enrichment. As a woman s
pregnancy develops, society tends to consider her less sexually attractive, as no longer sexually
available. This means that she temporarily escapes man s sexual gaze. This is a positive
development for a woman, de Beauvoir argues, because now she is no longer in service as a
sexual object, but she is the incarnation of her species, she represents the promise of life, of
eternity (p518).

What about as a woman gets older? The aging woman is described by de Beauvoir as intent on
struggling against a misfortune that was mysteriously disfiguring and deforming her (p595).
This is a very negative description of the aging process. It evokes the tone of a cosmetics advert
which pressures women to buy their products to struggle against time. Nevertheless, de Beauvoir
s description is an honest one. We know from her autobiographical writings that she really
struggled to come to terms with her aging body: she liked clothes, was considered attractive, and
felt upset when she thought she was losing her looks. Yet as a philosopher she was able to step
back and see that this attitude was due to an inordinate value placed by society on such ephemeral
assets. She had accepted society s definition of her worth as her own definition.

De Beauvoir does admit that as a woman persists through the oncoming of age, she may find
herself in a more positive stage of life: She can also permit herself defiance of fashion and of
what people will say, she is freed from social obligations, dieting, and the care of her beauty
(p595). So although old age has many negative aspects, it can provide a kind of escape from
society s pressure. The desire to conform is lifted, and freedom increases. De Beauvoirs point is
that freedom needs space to move. In the case of female embodiment, there is often no room for
women to really see their bodies through their own gaze, since the male gaze permeates
everywhere.

Free Space
The intertwinedness of body and mind helps explain womens oppression. Women do not choose
to think about their bodies and bodily processes negatively; rather they are forced to do so as a
result of being embedded in a hostile patriarchal society. On this view the body is not just the
thing we can prod and poke, it is shaped by a plethora of perceptions: if we feel bad about it, it
becomes a bad thing; if we feel good about it, it becomes a good thing. But the way we think
about it is not a matter of free choice unless we live in a society which gives space for that
freedom. What feminist philosophers like de Beauvoir aim to do is to open up a space for that
freedom to flourish.

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One is not born a woman but becomes one

Despite the long strides taken in women's liberation and women's equal participation in the
workforce, some men still regard women as secondary or "the other". This idea was articulated,
first, by the feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir in 1949.

In her seminal work "The second sex", De Beauvoir criticizes the "destiny traditionally offered to
women by society" through socialization into "feminine gender roles" which made women focus
on their looks rather than on education, career, or fulfillment of personal goals.
Despite the fact that we're a couple of decades ahead, we can't be blind to the fact that women
are still expected to compromise on their careers and self aspirations for the sake of others.
One example: some women are still expected to take their husband's last names rather than keep
their own names after wedding. And once the kids are born, the kids are given their father's
surnames not their mother's. Although the name issue might seem minor, it is definitely
symbolic.

It means (to me) that gender is not primarily innate, but inculturated. Gender identity is
'constructed' by all the discourses and structures that surround us as we become socially aware
beings. So womanhood is not something 'natural' or pre-programmed, but something that cultural
and social norms create for us.
You aren't "born" a woman, because a "woman" is a sociologically constructed entity, and until you meet
those standards you are not considered a woman... So like, when you get put in a pink blanket and are
given a cute pink hat at the hospital, then you are a woman

Stages of life.
Baby, girl, adolescent, woman.
It's a process, ya know