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In The Second Sex (1949), the French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir argued that becoming a woman is shaped not only by biology but by upbringing, social roles and institutions.

Simone de Beauvoir

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Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French philosopher and novelist and a leading figure of existentialism, the philosophy that people are not born with a fixed nature but make themselves through their choices. She wrote The Second Sex in about 14 months and published it in two volumes in 1949. Its best-known line, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”, sums up her argument: society treats man as the norm and woman as the “Other”, defined only in relation to him, and education, myth, law and work then teach girls that role. The book sold some 22,000 copies in its first week, was placed on the Vatican's list of forbidden books and became a founding text of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Türkçe oku
Fransız filozof Simone de Beauvoir, 1949'da yayımladığı İkinci Cinsiyet'te, kadın olmayı yalnızca biyolojinin değil, yetiştirilme biçiminin, toplumsal rollerin ve kurumların da biçimlendirdiğini savundu.

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) Fransız filozof ve romancıydı. Varoluşçuluğun önde gelen adlarındandı; bu felsefeye göre insan doğuştan belirlenmiş bir özle gelmez, kendini seçimleriyle yaratır. İkinci Cinsiyet'i yaklaşık 14 ayda yazdı ve 1949'da iki cilt hâlinde yayımladı. Kitabın en bilinen cümlesi olan “Kadın doğulmaz, kadın olunur” savını özetler: Toplum erkeği ölçü alır, kadını ise yalnızca erkeğe göre tanımlanan “öteki” olarak görür; eğitim, mitler, hukuk ve çalışma hayatı da kız çocuklarına bu rolü öğretir. Kitap Fransa'da ilk haftasında yaklaşık 22.000 adet sattı, Vatikan'ın yasak kitaplar listesine alındı ve 1960'lar ile 70'lerin feminist hareketinin temel metinlerinden biri oldu. Türkçede önce 1970'te “Kadın” adıyla çıktı; 2019'daki yeni çevirinin adı İkinci Cinsiyet'tir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: The Second Sex
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