The Second Sex

In Part 3, Beauvoir shifts from discussing the history of women and their rights and oppression to describing “myths,” the dominant cultural and social ideas about women. Through myths, the idea of the Other is maintained. This is important for men, who also define and understand themselves in reference to this Other. Beauvoir writes, “Once the subject attempts to assert himself, the Other, who limits and denies him, is nevertheless necessary for him: he attains himself only through the reality that he is not” (159).

Beauvoir argues that defining themselves against an Other has always been important for men. There were two alternate ways men could have defined themselves: in opposition to Nature or in relation to other men. However, Beauvoir explains, Nature is too abstract and too unlike humanity to provide a basis for understanding. Meanwhile, men defining themselves in relation to other men only causes an endless struggle in “searching for being” (160). A man who tries to define himself according to his male peers is constantly struggling to keep up. On the other hand, woman “is the perfect intermediary between nature that is foreign to man and the peer who is too identical for him” (160).