The Second Sex Quotes

If so few female geniuses are found in history, it is because society denies them any means of expression.

Simone de Beauvoir

The relation of woman to husband, of of daughter to father, of sister to brother, is a relation of vassalage.

Simone de Beauvoir

she gives birth in pain, she heals males' wounds, she nurses the newborn and buries the dead; of man she knows all that offends his pride and humiliates his will. While inclining before him and submitting flesh to spirit, she remains on the carnal borders of the spirit; and she contests the sharpness of hard masculine architecture by softening the angles; she introduces free luxury and unforeseen grace.

Simone de Beauvoir

; the man who does not "understand" a woman is happy to replace his subjective deficiency with an objective resistance; instead of admitting his ignorance, he recognizes the presence of a mystery exterior to himself: here is an excuse that flatters his laziness and vanity at the same time.

Simone de Beauvoir

The relation of woman to husband, of daughter to father, of sister to brother, is a relation of vassalage.

Simone de Beauvoir

Taking without being taken in the anguish of becoming prey is the dangerous game of adolescent feminine sexuality.

Simone de Beauvoir

The little girl feels that her body is escaping her, that it is no longer the clear expression of her individuality: it becomes foreign to her; and at the same moment she is grasped by others as a thing: on the street, eyes follow her, her body is subject to comments; she would like to become invisible; she is afraid of becoming flesh and afraid to show her flesh.

Simone de Beauvoir

: woman is an eminently poetic reality since man projects onto her everything he is not resolved to be.

Simone de Beauvoir

The feminine body is expected to be flesh, but discreetly so;

Simone de Beauvoir