A few people have been commenting to me about the selection of Feminist books on the right side of the blog (which desperately needs updating). Well, last Friday, I picked up The Second Sex. Previously, I had only read the Introduction (it was included in a different text). Most of my life I had considered myself a feminist without really knowing what that meant. These three sentences by Simone de Beauvoir truly enlightened me.

In the midst of an abstract discussion it is vexing to hear a man say: “You think thus and so because you are a woman”; but I know that my only defence is to reply: “I think thus and so because it is true,” thereby removing my subjective self from the argument. It would be out of the question to reply: “And you think the contrary because you are a man”, for it is understood that the fact of being a man is no peculiarity. A man is in the right in being a man; it is the woman who is in the wrong.

Maybe that fact was obvious to most people, but I was pretty much oblivious. For that reason, I felt the need to share. Here, btw, is the rest of the Introduction.