“The little girl feels that her body is escaping her, that it is no longer the clear expression of her individuality: it becomes foreign to her; and at the same moment she is grasped by others as a thing: on the street, eyes follow her, her body is subject to comments; she would like to become invisible; she is afraid of becoming flesh and afraid to show her flesh.”

French writer, social theorist, and feminist activist

Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. She is closely associated with existentialism and with the development of feminist thought. Although she did not describe herself as a philosopher, her work had a major influence on feminist existentialism and feminist theory. Her writings are often read in the context of those ideas, rather than as part of a formal philosophical career.