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Article: Works of Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex: Book Two, Parts IV - XIX
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Beauvior, Simone de
Monarch Notes
01-01-1963
The Second Sex: Book Two, Parts IV - XIX
Book Two: Woman's Life Today
Part IV. The Formative Years
Chapter XII: Childhood
The argument. "One is not born, but rather becomes a woman," declares de
Beauvoir. Female destiny is imposed on woman by society. Boys and girls are
raised differently: boys to be active; girls to be passive and repress their
impulses.
Girls are raised in a man-made world: the songs, legends, and mythology
present men as heros. In religion, they are presented as superiors: God,
Christ, Pope, and priest; the only notable woman in Christianity, The Virgin
Mary, kneels before her son.
In puberty, too, the girl's experience is ...