"The Second Sex" by Simone de Beauvoir

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”

Simone de Beauvoir opens Book Two of The Second Sex (published in French in 1949) by questioning traditional assumptions in which a certain idea of “femininity” is still ascribed today, and urging her readers to rethink the idea of “woman”. Her contribution, then labelled scandalous and controversial, cast aside moral prejudices about the “female condition” and broke new ground in western feminist thought. How does this book fit with today’s positions on sexuality? What conceptual and experiential dialogue might we have with it?

In this commemorative event, Marta Marín-Dòmine invites thinkers, writers, and activists Kate Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth Duval, Meri Torras, Alín Salom, and Tsitsi Dangarembga to choose fragments from The Second Sex that they consider relevant for this discussion. The actress Carol Muakuku will bring the texts to life, inviting the audience to delve deeper into the thought of Simone de Beauvoir and to think again about the work in the light of our times.