Both sexes implicitly center perspective on the male, making woman the object

Evidence

As she pointed out, woman is indeed ‘other’ for man — but man is not exactly ‘other’ for woman, or not in the same way. Both sexes tend to agree in taking the male as the defining case and the centre of all perspectives. Even language reinforces this, with ‘man’ and ‘he’ being the default terms in French as in English. Women try constantly to picture themselves as they would look to a male gaze. Instead of looking out to the world as it presents itself to them (like the person peering through the keyhole) they maintain a point of view in which they are the objects (like the same person after becoming aware of footsteps in the hall). This, for Beauvoir, is why women spend so much time in front of mirrors. It is also why both men and women implicitly take women to be the more sensual, the more eroticised, the more sexual sex. In theory, for a heterosexual female, men should be the sexy ones, disporting themselves for the benefit of her gaze. Yet she sees herself as the object of attraction, and the man as the person in whose eyes she glows with desirability. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 681

Categorization

• XREF: Directly explains Beauvoir’s asymmetry in the theory of the Other — makes the abstract self-other gaze concrete and gendered. — connects to: Men’s perspective passes as neutral truth while women’s is read as gendered — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 53; Woman’s contradictory image stems from being man’s inessential Other — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 413; Feminine presentation is coerced self-objectification in disguise — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 900 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Men’s perspective passes as neutral truth while women’s is read as gendered #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 53
• Gender categories divide humans into female objects and male subjects #expands (0.85)
• Woman’s contradictory image stems from being man’s inessential Other #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 413
• Feminine presentation is coerced self-objectification in disguise #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 900