Simone de Beauvoir — "The female is a female only in relation to the male. Otherwise, she is an incomp…"
The female is a female only in relation to the male. Otherwise, she is an incomplete human being.
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More from Simone de Beauvoir
"In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to overcome, stubbornness is stupid."
"The most important task for women is to free themselves from the chains of tradition and men's expectations."
"The fact that she is a woman has been a handicap for her in every respect."
"Man is a creature of flesh and bone, but also of ideas and dreams."
"When women act like human beings, they are accused of behaving like men."
About Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)
French existentialist philosopher whose The Second Sex (1949) is the foundational text of modern feminist theory. Closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre (lifetime partner and existentialist co-founder) and Albert Camus (existentialist contemporary in Paris). For an intellectual contrast, see Camille Paglia, American cultural critic and Sexual Personae author — Paglia argues for biological-essentialist roots of gender that Beauvoir's social-construction view — 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman' — explicitly rejects. The two are the cleanest constructed-vs-essentialist poles in feminist theory.
The standard scholarly entry points to Simone de Beauvoir's work: Toril Moi (Duke, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor) — Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (1994); Margaret A. Simons (Southern Illinois University, Emerita) — Beauvoir and The Second Sex (1999); Kate Kirkpatrick (Oxford, Regent's Park College) — Becoming Beauvoir: A Life (2019). These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Simone de Beauvoir.