The Second Sex

Because women must cope with contradictions and navigate barriers that come from being women, they try to cope by focusing on the self. Beauvoir has discussed how girls use diaries and try to display themselves to their community through dressing up. In adulthood, Beauvoir writes, women identify strongly with specific works of literature.

The problem with narcissism is that it prevents women from interacting with others and with society to their betterment. For example, Beauvoir gives the hypothetical example of a woman “tormented by her ego” who “does not care about establishing any real relationship with others” (680). Beauvoir argues that she becomes so obsessed with the self she has nothing more to offer herself or others except her self-image.