Abortion and the single woman as literary tropes in the works of Amos Oz — Page 11:
51 The main inspiration for this essay has been the pivotal literary analysis that originated with Simone de Beauvoir and Kate Milett, critics who saw literature as reflective of collective subjugating male prejudices. As a result, the structure and philosophical agenda of this essay is dominated by the theory of gender binarism and imagery myths, its underpinnings first stated by De Beauvoir in her treatise The Second Sex, and eloquently summed up by Pam Morris:
De Beauvoir points out that a concept of 'otherness' is necessary for organizing human thought. We can acquire a sense of self — of 'me' — only in opposition to what is 'not me' — what is other [. . .]. '[W]oman' functions as the other in the same way which allows men to construct a positive self-identity as masculine. And because what is other does not have identity in its own right, it often acts as an empty space to be ascribed whatever meanings the dominant group chooses. Thus women are frail not strong, emotional not rational, yielding not virile, so that masculinity can be defined as those positive qualities [. . .] by seeing women as other to themselves, as not-men, men can read into 'femininity; whatever qualities are needed to construct their sense of the masculine. So, a mythicised 'Woman' becomes the imaginary location of male dreams, idealizations and fears. (14)