French writer, journalist, intellectual, philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist…Although she never considered herself a philosopher, Simone De Beauvoir represented an important point of reference for both philosopher and feminists.
Born in Paris, France, in 1908, at the age of 21 she met the love of her life Jean-Paul Sartre, forming a partnership and romance that would shape both of their lives and philosophical beliefs.
Here we have collected for you 10 of her most powerful feminist quotes that have inspired thousands of women in the world.
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
“Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female – whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.”
“Sex pleasure in woman, as I have said, is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.”
“Why one man rather than another? It was odd. You find yourself involved with a fellow for life just because he was the one that you met when you were nineteen.”
“In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.”
“A man attaches himself to woman — not to enjoy her, but to enjoy himself.”
“On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in her strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself–on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life and not of mortal danger.”
“If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male’s arrogance made it a discussion.”
“What would Prince Charming have for occupation if he had not to awaken the Sleeping beauty?”
“Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.”
