文档介绍：T h e S e c o n d S e x b y S i m o n e d e B e a u v o i r ( 1 9 4 9 ) I n t r o d u c t i o n W o m a n a s O t h e r FOR a long time I have hesitated to write a book on woman. The subject is irritating, especially to women; and it is not new. Enough ink has been spilled in quarrelling over feminism, and perhaps we should say no more about it. It is still talked about, however, for the voluminous nonsense uttered during the last century seems to have done little to illuminate the problem. After all, is there a problem? And if so, what is it? Are there women, really? Most assuredly the theory of the eternal feminine still has its adherents who will whisper in your ear: ‘ Even in Russia women still are women ’; and other erudite persons – sometimes the very same – say with a sigh: ‘ Woman is losing her way, woman is lost. ’ One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should, what place they occupy in this world, what their place should be. ‘ What has e of women? ’ was a s k e d r e c e n t l y i n a n e p h e m e r a l m a g a z i n e . But first we must ask: what isa woman? ‘ Tota mulier in utero ’, says one, ‘ woman isa womb ’. But in speaking of certain women, connoisseurs declare that they are not women, although they are equipped with a uterus like the rest. All agree in recognising the fact that females exist in the human species; today as always they make up about one half of humanity. And yet we are told that femininity is in danger; we are exhorted tobe women, remain women, e women. It would appear, then, that every female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity. Is this attribute something secreted by the ovaries? Or is ita Platonic essence, a product of the philosophic imagination? Isa rustling petticoat enough to bring it down to earth? Although some women try zealously