A man never begins by positing himself as an individual of a certain sex: that he is a man is obvious. The categories masculine and feminine appear as symmetrical in a formal way on town hall records or identification papers.
 Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949). copy citation

add
Author Simone de Beauvoir
Source The Second Sex
Topic sex identification
Date 1949
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Constance Borde and 
Sheila Malovany Chevallier
Weblink