The lesbian is defined by exclusivity of preference, not by preference

Evidence

We have seen that they often appear in the adolescent girl as an ersatz form of heterosexual relations she has not yet had the opportunity or the audacity to experience: it is a stage, an apprenticeship, and the one who most ardently engages in such loves may tomorrow be the most ardent of wives, lovers, and mothers. What must be explained in the female homosexual is thus not the positive aspect of her choice but the negative side: she is not characterized by her preference for women but by the exclusiveness of this preference. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1035

Categorization

• DEFINE: Beauvoir’s precise definitional move: the lesbian is characterized negatively, by the exclusiveness of her preference, redirecting the whole explanatory question.
• XREF: connects to: Autonomy-seeking women often remain heterosexual rather than lesbian — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041

Broader Connections

• Autonomy-seeking women often remain heterosexual rather than lesbian #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041