13 quotes
One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius; and the feminine situation has up to the present rendered this becoming practically impossible.
The Second Sex (1949)
One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.
The Second Sex (1949)
The present enshrines the past—and in the past all history has been made by men.
The Second Sex (1949)
The curse which lies upon marriage is that too often the individuals are joined in their weakness rather than in their strength, each asking from the other instead of finding pleasure in giving.
The Second Sex (1949)
To "catch" a husband is an art; to "hold" him is a job.
The Second Sex (1949)
Cooking is revelation and creation; and a woman can find special satisfaction in a successful cake or a flaky pastry, for not every one can do it: one must have the gift.
The Second Sex (1949)
It is doubtless impossible to approach any human problems with a mind free from bias.
The Second Sex (1949)
It is for man to establish the reign of liberty in the midst of the world of the given. To gain the supreme victory, it is necessary, for one thing, that by and through their natural differentiation men and women unequivocally affirm their brotherhood.
The Second Sex (1949)
It is vain to apportion praise and blame.
The Second Sex (1949)
Sex pleasure in woman, as I have said, is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.
The Second Sex (1949)
From primitive times to our own, intercourse has always been considered a "service" for which the male thanks the woman by giving her presents or assuring her maintenance; but to serve is to give oneself a master; there is no reciprocity in this relation.
The Second Sex (1949)
Woman is an existent who is called upon to make herself object; as subject she has an aggressive element in her sensuality which is not satisfied on the male body: hence the conflicts that her eroticism must somehow overcome.
The Second Sex (1949)
To be gazed at is one danger; to be manhandled is another. Women as a rule are unfamiliar with violence, they have not been through the tussles of childhood and youth as have men; and now the girl is laid hold of, swept away in a bodily struggle in which the man is the stronger. She is no longer free to dream, to delay, to maneuver: she is in his power, at his disposal.
The Second Sex (1949)