Simone de Beauvoir — "There is no such thing as a natural woman, because 'woman' is a historical produ…"
There is no such thing as a natural woman, because 'woman' is a historical product.
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More from Simone de Beauvoir
"The world is not given, it is made."
"Man is a creature of flesh and bone, but also of ideas and dreams."
"She was not born to be a wife, nor a mother, nor anything but herself."
"The great advantage of the present-day bourgeoisie is to possess no moral, no ideal, no religion, no God, no sacred values."
"If we are to abolish the slavery of women, the first step is to abolish the family."
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.