"The erotic experience is one that most poignantly discloses to human beings the ambiguity of their..."

“The erotic experience is one that most poignantly discloses to human beings the ambiguity of their condition; in it they are aware of themselves as flesh and as spirit, as the other and as the subject. This conflict has more dramatic shape for woman because at first she feels herself to be object and does not at once realize a sure independence in sex enjoyment; she must regain her dignity as transcendent and free subject while assuming her carnal condition - an enterprise fraught with difficulty and danger, and one that often fails.”

- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, p. 402 (via beauvoiriana)