The question of what it means to be a woman has been floating around society for centuries, and any kind of permanent or universally accepted answer remains elusive. This is an ever-evolving definition in which time-appropriate traits are assigned to the female form as a means of capturing the meaning of being a true woman. Labels such as obedient, submissive, weak, and well-behaved were assigned along with skills such as being a talented cook, an excellent child-rearer, and an efficient housekeeper. Gender-based stereotypes of inability have also emerged, such as that women do not have the mental capacity of men and that they cannot carry out important or difficult jobs. Simone de Beauvoir, however, completely rejects these labels in her philosophical text The Second Sex and identifies the idea of ​​woman proper as a socially constructed concept. She wonders what a woman is and what it means to identify with the word, if anything. Although the distinction between men and women exists today, this difference was not given any meaning from the beginning and was built up throughout history. Woman has achieved her status in society thanks to man attributing meaning to her being, and the idea of ​​true woman has become an everyday role and an ever-changing mask to wear. For these reasons, the social concept of gender is influenced by external factors that have led to the development of an accepted and performed idea of ​​the female form and sense of self. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To begin, Beauvoir identifies that the concept of gender is constructed by society and is completely dependent on the existence of women who are different and therefore inferior to men. Beauvoir addresses this topic in the statement: “'A man's body has meaning in itself, ignoring the woman's body, while the woman's body seems meaningless without reference to the male one. Man thinks of himself without woman. Woman cannot be thought of without man." And she is nothing other than what man decides; this is why it is called "the sex", in the sense that the male essentially sees it as a sexual being; for him she is sex” (Beauvoir, 6). The idea of ​​gender falls on the subordinate group, meaning that without women there would be nothing to question or compare men to, but the existence of men is not questioned because they hold the dominant position in society. Male domination has come to mean that women are identified as separate, different and nothing without their male counterparts. Without these counterparts, however, femininity cannot be identified and has no existence. Therefore, the sense of self that has been imposed on women is based on the external classification of gender as a specific reference to the female body and form. Likewise, the separation of woman from man due to her socially fabricated gender results in her being labeled and treated as a woman. The Other as man in return adopts the position of the superior figure, or the One. Beauvoir addresses this theme for the first time with the testimony that "no group ever defines itself as One without immediately placing the Other before itself" (Beauvoir, 6). This is because for an identity to be clearly dominant, the Other must first be isolated and then must recognize and submit to their position as Other. Beauvoir argues that existence precedes essence in the sense that, although female and male bodies are different, this difference initially had nomeaning. The development of the Other against the One, however, has led to the creation of a society in which supremacy is a natural and coveted feeling, as Beauvoir states: “One of the benefits that oppression ensures for the oppressor is that the most humble among them they feel superior […] The most mediocre of males thinks he is a demigod next to women” (Beauvoir, 13). This desperate need to identify a ruling class has played an important role in shaping the sense of self that women possess and that society possesses around women today. Beyond this, Beauvoir points out that there is nothing strange about the human desire to define and separate based on difference, even though these distinctions may only exist in the heads of those who have noticed them. She demonstrates that recognizing these differences is simply part of the human condition in the statement: “The category of the Other is as original as consciousness itself. The duality between Self and Other can be found in the most primitive societies, in the most ancient mythologies; this division did not always fall into the category of the division of the sexes, it was not based on any empirical data [...] Otherness is the fundamental category of human thought" (Beauvoir, 6). Through this it is implied that identifying diversity among beings and then attributing meaning to these differences is an inherently human action, as these types of differences are not ones that could ever be derived in nature. The essence however has still been understood and realized by humanity throughout history and without it gender differences would have remained meaningless. Consequently, every self-concept surrounding the female form is built on the external factor of humanity's need to attach meaning and implications to every existence and to identify a dominant and dominant species. Beauvoir also argues in The Second Sex that a woman is in a constant state of “becoming” and that only by succumbing to the state of “being” will she remain trapped in her state of otherness. She expresses: “When an individual or a group of individuals is kept in an inferior situation, the fact is that he or they are inferior. But we must understand the significance of the verb to be; bad faith means giving it a substantial value [...] To be is to have become, to have been made as it manifests itself to us. Yes, women in general today are inferior to men; that is, their situation offers them fewer possibilities: the question is whether this state of affairs should be perpetuated” (Beauvoir, 12). In this he states that today women are offered fewer opportunities than men, but only because the social order has made them that way. Sex exists and must be recognized as an essential part of human biological function, but it should not be allowed to define how things must function within society. Sex is an accidental trait, like class, race, or sexuality. The concept of gender, however, is not accidental and was established only on the basis that to some extent the state of becoming has yielded to the state of being. In this cessation of “becoming” society's ideal woman, the female form has achieved a condition of existence that fits society's predetermined idea of ​​female identity. In short, the one who once “became” has reached a state of “is” and this state has been adopted and maintained from the outside in a way known as standard female behavior, appearance and intelligence. this Beauvoir states: “It is evident that no woman can claim without bad faith that she is beyond her sex” (Beauvoir, 4). This idea of ​​bad faith refers to someone who is unable to recognize their situation and therefore is unable to move beyond their current self. This is important since Beauvoir.