capture “ complex and contradictory meanings of woman ” ( Stavro , 2007 : 454 ). These situations are influenced by myriad factors . Though the particularities of these various situations mean that experiences can never be “ wholly accessible ”, they do not deter communication , for our “ experiences are not closed onto themselves ” ( Stavro , 2007 : 446 ). When gender is understood not to denote a “ substantive being ” but a “ relative point of convergence ” then , we do not just allow for different converging becomings of a woman but it is in the seeds of this claim that we discover just how radical De Beauvoir ’ s claim really is ( Butler , 1990 : 14 ). Beauvoir then , in her rejection of searching for any golden nugget of womanness , manages to come to a similar conclusion to that of Donna Haraway - the basing of her feminist ethics on a coalition of “ affinity-not identity ” ( Haraway , 2016 ). It is through a recognition of our affinity , our intersubjectivity and our reliance on each other for our freedom that we can find the source of De Beauvoir ’ s feminist ethics . As highlighted earlier , there are two elements to “ body as situation ”, first as a locus of cultural interpretations and then second as a “ having to take up and interpret that set of interpretations ” ( Butler , 1986 : 45 ). Blum parallels this well when she talks of a trans persons ’ experience of speaking a language
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of gender that is reliant on others . Others are necessary to “ share in my projection of what gender is and what our common standards are for recognition ” ( Blum , 2018 : 577 ). One ’ s body then , becomes a “ field of cultural possibilities both received and reinterpreted ” ( Butler , 1986 : 45 ). When De Beauvoir says then , that “ one is not born , but rather becomes a woman ,” she is imploring us not to approach sex and gender “ in the spirit of seriousness , to consider values as ready-made things ” ( De Beauvoir , 1947 : 44 ). We should instead emphasise the “ ambivalence , anxiety and frustration that we variably experience with having to perpetually take up our existence in the world and render it meaningful ” ( Blum , 2018 : 584 ). “ One is not born but rather becomes a woman ” thus has two meanings : as a description of the situation of women in a patriarchal society and as a deconstruction of femininity ; a call for subversion , reinterpretation , ambiguity and authenticity .