On Not Becoming a Woman

ABSTRACT This article explores how Beauvoir's argument “On ne naît pas femme: on le devient” supports the possibilities outlined in The Second Sex of no longer becoming a woman. Of deepening, for oneself, a form of singularity that escapes patriarchal gendered polarisation. Emphasising the importance of ambiguity in Beauvoirian thought, it shows how the feminine/masculine binary impoverishes experiences and forms of subjectivation, by establishing a uniform patriarchal femininity. This social destiny is nonetheless an existential temptation in the sense that the gendered patriarchal femininity appears as a mode of subjective investment, a defence against the freedom to be oneself and against the possibility of expressing one's singular voice. This article will therefore focus on re‐conceiving the relation between freedom and femininity to consider the many ways of undoing an assigned, patriarchal femininity and reinventing a humanity that is not to be confused with generic masculinity.