ABSTRACT
In a striking passage in The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir suggested that ‘male activity’, in prevailing over the ‘confused forces of life’, has subdued both Nature and woman.1 The association between Nature and woman to which de Beauvoir here alludes has a long history in the self-definitions of western culture. Nietzsche, with characteristic overstatement, suggested in a fragment on ‘The Greek woman’ that woman’s closeness to Nature makes her play to the State the role that sleep plays for man.
