Woman
By: Lexy Fantom
Tags: Philosophy, Women, Power, Freedom, Existentialism

Throughout time, women have peacefully and universally accepted the male domination. They’ve let themselves be enslaved and oppressed. However, a while ago, women started realizing that they didn’t want to continue living in a man-made world.

They are fed up with blindly taking men’s conception of the world as the truth. It is true that history and myths, in general, the world have been set up by men. The “Truth” is nothing more than men’s illusions. The women’s world is merely built upon the dreams of men. All of it, in function of their current interests and desires. These illusions had become so convincing that they put women in danger. As Nietzsche quoted “Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truths than lies.” Once being convinced that this is the life a woman ought to live, it puts her and others in danger while a lie wouldn’t have gotten us so far.

Although, Western society has been improving gradually, this conviction is still rooted in not only men, but in all of us.

The Male Writer

“Who is She?” a question many of us have asked throughout history. Who is this mysterious creature walking on earth?

To give a short answer understandable to everyone, there is none. There is no true response. Reality, of which she takes part, is merely a construction of our imaginations. Rather, men’s imagination.

History, including the history of women, has been written by men. Not only history, also the mythological infrastructure that defines woman is a male projection. Men have set up the path for her that she has blindly accepted to follow. Men had an idea of her, they defined her and created myths around her. They were defined as inferior, the second sex, inessential. Take for example the explanation of Eve’s existence. Her potential as an individual is irrelevant. She is nothing more than a convenience for Adam, rather, an object. An object, that is how women have been perceived by men. They were created to please men, to create life, to serve men. As much as they tried to make the woman appear as a different, there is none, excluding their sexual organs. Both parties should be able to write their own story.

The sad truth is the very moment when women dipped their pen in the ink, men ripped the page away from under them, writing the story themselves. Not giving women a chance to become.

It is remarkable how good men can write since the story they’ve noted has been put down in a way that women couldn’t even dream of a world where they were equals. The story was so convincing that they could not see the lies within it.

The ocean had become too black to see anything through it. The lies laying at the bottom became invisible. The story had become so persuasive to her that she couldn’t do anything else than reading the lines. She conformed to the socially and culturally prescribed behaviours, roles, attitudes and desires her actor had.

Despite the women wearing glasses, good enough to see something through the obscurity of the ocean, they couldn’t do a thing. She, questioning the lines, wouldn’t have any possibility to erase the ink and rewrite her story.

Society had been constructed by men. They have always held all powers, enabling the maintenance of women’s dependence on them. She was deprived of her rights; she was the object of men and slave of nature. They were made stupid disabling them to question, they did not possess any material nor her own body. It made independence merely a dream. Even when they were given rights to work, to possess, to be, there were other aspects making freedom irrelevant. This living creature got the name the “Other” as Simone Beauvoir mentioned in the Second Sex.

Unfortunately, this Other, Idol, Muse did not exist. She is an illusion made by men. Leading to disappointment since women do not always align with this Other. As much as she tries to become the Other, identifies with the Other, she will never be the Other.

Road To Freedom

The first step of freedom for her is saying goodbye to the Other and become herself.

Feminism shouldn’t start with fighting for equal rights. This would only be beneficial for a certain group of people and would not lead to freedom.

Women are asking for more rights and they are getting them. Our western societies have changed crucially compared to several centuries ago. She can study, vote, work, has a more equal salary. However, despite the huge changes, has the situation really improved? It is true that these enormous changes made their lives much better than her ancestors, but she still has the right to complain. As long as she hasn’t attained freedom, she has the right to find that road of freedom. As long as some women still wonder whether those who desire to become a woman (transgender) necessarily understand themselves wanting to become subordinated, we know equality of gender has not been reached. This worry, the fear of an individual becoming a woman should be abolished, but this can only happen when both men and women see themselves as equals.

Nonetheless, this road to freedom is not that complicated to find. She has to get rid of the Other. It is a step that not only the men have to take, also she has to be willing to say goodbye.

For as long as she doesn’t change the perception she has of herself, she will not be freed. As much as she is politicly and economically independent, she has to stop considering herself as inferior, someone who has to please men.

For as long as she prioritizes him above her, she will stay imprisoned.

Freedom can be achieved by a non-materialistic change, a change in the mind. We’ve tried to correct the situation materialistically, but it did not free her.



It all starts by the woman seeing herself as an autonomous being, a master of her own body and world. Today, she can finally write down her own story, a possibility she has been deprived of since the day the first human walked on earth. It is time to pick up her pen.



She should not fear men anymore, they are more relaxed, willing to read the story instead of rejecting it straight away.



It is indeed a huge step to abandon the “Other” and to become oneself. Changing laws expanding the opportunities are easier than changing one’s mind, to break the illusions. As Nietzsche quoted “sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed”. She should stop hiding behind her voiles and show the world her true self. She should stop lying to men and to herself. A woman does not exist as such. Existence precedes essence. This Other has never existed. She has tried to become this Other, and now the time has come to leave her behind. As much as it feels as abandoning a part of herself, she never has been herself, thus she has nothing to lose. The Other was nothing more than an illusion of men that she had decided to become. Once woman stops accepting her otherness and her subjectivity, she can finally be freed.

It is time to open the door, push the “Other” outside, close the door again and start writing.

The Other is gone, and she is born.

No definition exists for a woman. A human being is and stays in its pure subjectivity nothing. We are nothing. We simply become.