Aquinas defined woman as a failed, incomplete man living under male authority

Evidence

Saint Thomas will remain true to this tradition, declaring that woman is only an “occasional” and incomplete being, a sort of failed man. “Man is the head of woman just as Christ is the head of man,” he writes. “It is a constant that woman is destined to live under the authority of man and has no authority of her own.” — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core statement of the Aristotelian-Thomist view of woman as deficient male (misbegotten male) that existentialist feminism directly attacks.
• XREF: Directly counters Beauvoir’s own ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’ core thesis; the ‘failed man’ framing is precisely the essentialism she dismantles. — connects to: Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170; Man defines woman not in herself but in relation to himself — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 13; Female virtue is the broken form in which exploited nature enters male culture — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 256 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170
• Christian doctrine institutionalized women’s subordination despite early egalitarian impulses #exemplifies (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204
• Female virtue is the broken form in which exploited nature enters male culture #corroborates (0.82) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 256
• Man defines woman not in herself but in relation to himself #exemplifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 13
• Male love requires woman as an object who remains unconscious of herself #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 614
• Genesis encodes woman as derived, destined for man, never autonomous #corroborates (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 319