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The Philosopher's Shirt

Simone de Beauvoir Portrait

One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. The Second Sex ran to nearly a thousand pages and reset the terms of the argument permanently.

Existentialist in her own right, not a footnote to anyone else's career. The whole range: tees, women's tees, sweatshirts and hoodies, printed to order as you buy them. Freedom is not given. It is taken, in public, at cost.

Questions about this design

What does the Simone de Beauvoir design show?
A clean black-and-white portrait of Simone de Beauvoir in profile, her hair in her trademark updo, signed simply Simone in flowing script. First names are usually reserved for friends and icons; this design treats one of the 20th century's most important philosophers as both.
Who was Simone de Beauvoir?
A French existentialist philosopher, novelist and essayist (1908–1986) and one of the founders of modern feminist theory. In 1929 she passed the highly competitive agrégation in philosophy, placing second behind Jean-Paul Sartre and, at 21, becoming the youngest person to have passed it. Her best-known work is The Second Sex (1949).
What does One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman mean?
The famous line opens the second volume of The Second Sex (1949). Beauvoir argues that being a woman is not a fixed nature given at birth but a situation one is shaped into – through upbringing, myths, economic dependence and other people's expectations. It laid groundwork for the later distinction between sex and gender.
What is The Second Sex about?
A two-volume study, published in 1949, of how women have been defined throughout history, biology, psychoanalysis, myth and everyday life. Volume one, Facts and Myths, examines how woman was made the Other; volume two, Lived Experience, traces a woman's life from childhood onward. It ends by calling for genuine freedom and reciprocity between the sexes.
What does Beauvoir mean by woman as the Other?
In The Second Sex she argues that men have cast themselves as the Subject, the Absolute and the human norm, while woman is defined only in relation to man – as the Other. This is not a natural fact but a social and historical situation, and because it is made, Beauvoir insists, it can be changed.
Was Simone de Beauvoir only Sartre's partner, or a philosopher in her own right?
A philosopher in her own right. The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) develops an original existentialist ethics in which my freedom requires the freedom of others, and The Second Sex applies existentialism to sex and oppression in ways Sartre never did. Recent scholarship argues she shaped some of his ideas rather than simply following them.
What was the relationship between Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre?
They met as students in 1929 and remained partners until Sartre's death in 1980. They never married, never lived together and agreed that the relationship would not be exclusive. They read and criticised each other's work throughout their lives and are buried side by side in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.
Which Simone de Beauvoir book should I read first?
For her philosophy, The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) is short and clear; for her landmark argument, The Second Sex (1949). If you prefer her life and novels, try Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1958) or The Mandarins, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1954. Her first novel, She Came to Stay (1943), is a fine way into her fiction.
Who is the Simone de Beauvoir design a good gift for?
For feminists, philosophy and gender studies students, readers of existentialism and anyone who has quoted The Second Sex in an argument and won. It also makes a thoughtful gift for International Women's Day. The design comes as a sweatshirt, premium hoodie, classic t-shirt, women's t-shirt, mug and sticker.