Throughout history, women have had the misfortune of being labeled the “other” to men. According to many philosophers, women are the second sex. This idea of ​​women as the second sex is fueled by the idea that feminine is a mistake and that masculinity is the correct approach to life. Recently this idea has also been given a new name: androcentrism. Androcentrism is a new type of sexism that, instead of only favoring men over women, universally favors masculinity over feminism. This new term perfectly summarizes what many philosophers have argued throughout this course: women are the second sex and masculinity is the superior norm. These ideas can be found in the rhetoric of Freud, Gilligan, Aristotle, Schopenhauer, and even Beauvoir. However, the way masculinity and femininity are defined negatively affects all genders, and I believe that the idea of ​​women as the second sex, popularized by patriarchy, is oppressing both men and women. The term androcentrism was recently coined by The Society Pages, a magazine website that documents sociological trends. The article, written by Lisa Wade (professor at Occidental College) is extremely short. The point is one that doesn't need much explanation: it's acceptable for women to behave like men, because being male is beautiful. For a boy, however, looking or acting like a girl is degrading. Being a woman is seen as degrading. Wade provides a dozen examples that demonstrate this idea. These include articles about people who use derivations of feminine descriptors as insults (sissy, for example), or articles that inflate the importance of doing things "like a guy": in short, you should do everything you can to not be feminine . The problem of course, as Wade points out, is that women are both at the center of the paper94. 22-31. Print.De Beauvoir, Simone. "The second sex." Philosophy of women: an anthology from classical to current concepts. Ed. Mary Briody Mahowald. Indianapolis [etc.: Hackett, 1994. 201-21. Print.Freud, Sigmund. "Femininity." Philosophy of women: an anthology from classical to current concepts. Ed. Mary Briody Mahowald. Indianapolis [etc.: Hackett, 1994. 224-41. Print.Gilligan, Carol. With a different voice. Digital image. E-Learning. Np, nd Web. 1 December 2013. .Schopenhauer, Arthur. "On women." Philosophy of women: an anthology from classical to current concepts. Ed. Mary Briody Mahowald. Indianapolis [etc.: Hackett, 1994. 134-46. Print.Wade, Lisa. "Androcentrism". Sociological images RSS. The company pages, 12 June 2011. Web. 1 December. 2013.