Simone De Beauvoir
Woman: myth and Reality

What is the myth of Eternal Feminine?
I feel that this myth means that women have always been considered to have feminine soft qualities, and that this should transcend though out the years not matter what; however this is not the case. As women gained freedoms they did not have to hold back are be a soft, quite, woman who let men stand in front of her. Also, it seems that women are looked upon and thought of as something different. Women are supposed to be feminine and demure, but in reality this is not always the case. For example when Beauvoir states,” This one, the myth of woman, sublimating an immutable aspect of the human condition-namely, the “division” of humanity into two classes of individuals- is a static myth” (Beauvoir 784). I am not sure if she is referring men and women or to idea of a woman and a woman in reality. For me it seemed that she was referring to the type of woman that come s up when you think of femininity and how in all actuality that is very different from the reality of a woman. This point came across in this said by Beauvoir, “If the definition provided for this concept is contradicting by the behavior of flesh-and-blood women, it is the latter who are wrong: we are told not that Femininity is false entity, but that women concerned are not feminine”(Beauvoir 785). Though this I understood that if this idea of eternal feminine is contradicted by real women that this idea is not un true, but that this idea is not a concern to all women of the time.


Works Cited
Beauvoir, Simone De. “Woman: Myth and Reality.” A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for College Writers. Ed. Lee A Jacobus. 7th Ed. New York; Bedford St. Martins, 2006. Pp 784-794.