Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex - men fundamentally oppress women by characterizing them, on every level, as the Other, defined exclusively in opposition to men - Man occupies the role of the self, or subject; woman is the object, the other. He is essential, absolute, and transcendent. She is inessential, incomplete, and mutilated. He extends out into the world to impose his will on it, whereas woman is doomed to immanence, or inwardness. He creates, acts, invents; she waits for him to save her.
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