A real woman is defined by accepting herself as Other, not by biology

Evidence

In the eyes of men—and of the legions of women who see through these eyes—it is not enough to have a woman’s body or to take on the female function as lover and mother to be a “real woman”; it is possible for the subject to claim autonomy through sexuality and maternity; the “real woman” is one who accepts herself as Other. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 668

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens the core ‘Other’ concept: the real woman is one who actively accepts the status of inessential object.
• XREF: Echoes the master-slave dialectic in Hegel and Sartre’s bad faith — a subject can choose to accept otherness. — connects to: The famous becoming-woman sentence concerns socially determined woman, not individuals — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 35; Man defines woman not in herself but in relation to himself — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 13; Woman’s defining situation is being forced to assume herself as Other — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 64 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Woman’s contradictory image stems from being man’s inessential Other #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 413
• The Other is constituted by negation as the self which is not myself #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 675