" In the introduction to The Second Sex (1949), de Beauvoir writes taht the ‘drama of woman’ lies in the conflict between the individual experienec of the self and the collective experienec of womanhood. To herself, a woman is inherently central and essential. To society, she is inessential, secondary, defined on the terms of her relationship to men. These are not ‘eternal verities,’ de Beauvoir writes, but are, rather, the ‘common basis that underlies every individual feminine existence. "

― Jia Tolentino , Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion