SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR

"Women throw themselves into many erotic experiences in order to escape sexual anxiety; they hope to rid themselves of their curiosity and obsessions, but their acts often have a theoretical cast, rendering such behavior as unreal as the fantasies through which others anticipate the future. Giving oneself out of defiance, fear, or puritan rationalism is not achieving an authentic erotic experience: one merely reaches a pseudo-experience without danger and without much flavor"

(The Second Sex)

The Voices of Her: Welcome

Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist and social activist who studied the sociological and psychological factors that contribute to the development of a woman’s psyche, expresses in her notable work, The Second Sex, the causes and results of sexual repression. De Beauvoir argues in her excerpt that women who have experienced a longevity of little to no sexual experience will eventually be flooded by an overwhelming amount of sexual expectations that develop within their imagination, preventing them from truly understanding the aspects of sexual pleasure.

The Voices of Her: Text

The Voices of Her: Selected Work