The Second Sex
Source: voltamax
The word love has by no means the same sense for both of the sexes, and this is one of the serious misunderstandings which divides them. Byron well said ‘Man’s love is of man’s life apart, ‘Tis woman’s whole existence.’ Nietzsche expresses the same idea in The Gay Science:
This single word love in fact signifies two different things for man and woman. What woman understands by love is clear enough: it is not only devotion, it is a total gift of body and soul, without reservation, without regard for anything whatever, This unconditional nature of her love is what makes it a faith, the only one she has. As for man, if he loves a woman, what he wants is that love from her; he is in consequence far from postulating the same sentiment for himself as for woman if there should be men….
By Simone de Beauvoir
