Quote 3. One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. This, the opening line of Book II, is de Beauvoir's most famous statement. Woman is not born fully formed; she is gradually shaped by her upbringing. Biology does not determine what makes a woman a woman—a woman learns her role from man and others in society.
For de Beauvoir, freedom comes in the act of trying to be free and accepting that this journey is the freedom. It is the process, not the outcome. This naturally leads to questions of ethics because if I want the freedom of others in pursuing my own freedom, I must have a system to evaluate conflicts.
about all genders having equal rights and opportunities
a philosophical movement that stresses the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent responsible for making meaningful, authentic choices in a universe seen as purposeless or irrational: existentialism is associated especially with Heidegger, Jaspers, Marcel, and Sartre, and is opposed to philosophical
Jonathan Webber argues that “as originally defined by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism is the ethical theory that we ought to treat the freedom at the core of human existence as intrinsically valuable and the foundation of all other values” (2018: 2).
The eternal feminine is a psychological archetype or philosophical principle that idealizes an immutable concept of "woman". It is one component of gender essentialism, the belief that men and women have different core "essences" that cannot be altered by time or environment.
Rejecting essentialist explanations for the female condition, Beauvoir famously declared, “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” The “eternal feminine”—those behaviors and character traits that set women apart from men—were humanly created, Beauvoir argued, not natural.
In The Ethics of Ambiguity, Beauvoir declares the human condition to be ambiguous. According to Beauvoir, we are both separate and connected to each other, a unique subject and an object for others, consciousness and body, free and unfree.
Simone de Beauvoir, in full Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, (born January 9, 1908, Paris, France—died April 14, 1986, Paris), French writer and feminist, a member of the intellectual fellowship of philosopher-writers who have given a literary transcription to the themes of existentialism.
Where is Simone de Beauvoir buried?
Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris, France
noun, plural am·bi·gu·i·ties.doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention: to speak with ambiguity; an ambiguity of manner. an unclear, indefinite, or equivocal word, expression, meaning, etc.: a contract free of ambiguities; the ambiguities of modern poetry.
: a lack of certainty about whether something is right or wrong.
Johnson and Elaine Howard Ecklund: Ethical ambiguity refers to circumstances where the line separating legitimate and illegitimate behavior is gray rather than black or white.
