Woman’s apparent naturalness is itself a product of history

Evidence

This would mean that today’s woman is nature’s creation; it must be repeated again that within the human collectivity nothing is natural, and woman, among others, is a product developed by civilization; the intervention of others in her destiny is originary: if this process were driven in another way, it would produce a very different result. Woman is defined neither by her hormones nor by mysterious instincts but by the way she grasps, through foreign consciousnesses, her body and her relation to the world; the abyss that separates adolescent girls from adolescent boys was purposely dug out from early infancy; later, it would be impossible to keep woman from being what she was made, and she will always trail this past behind her; if the weight of this past is accurately measured, it is obvious that her destiny is not fixed in eternity. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1976 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

When I use the word “woman” or “feminine,” I obviously refer to no archetype, to no immutable essence; “in the present state of education and customs” must be understood to follow most of my affirmations. There is no question of expressing eternal truths here, but of describing the common ground from which all singular feminine existence stems. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

We can now understand why, from ancient Greece to today, there are so many common features in the indictments against woman; her condition has remained the same throughout superficial changes, and this condition defines what is called the woman’s “character”: she “wallows in immanence,” she is argumentative, she is cautious and petty, she does not have the sense either of truth or of accuracy, she lacks morality, she is vulgarly self-serving, selfish, she is a liar and an actress. There is some truth in all these affirmations. But the types of behaviors denounced are not dictated to woman by her hormones or predestined in her brain’s compartments: they are suggested in negative form by her situation. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1740 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Woman is made by civilization, not nature or biology — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1976; Family history and biological legacy are physically inscribed on women’s bodies — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 229; Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Woman is made by civilization, not nature or biology #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1976
• Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence #corroborates (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675
• Woman’s traits stem from her situation, not biology #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1740
• Patriarchal mythology projects its own values onto woman and calls imposed immanence her nature #expands (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 655
• Women’s alleged faults arise from their enclosed condition, not innate nature #corroborates (0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1745
• Family history and biological legacy are physically inscribed on women’s bodies #expands (0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 229