Essentialists argue that certain signifieds are distinct, autonomous entities which have an objective existence and essential properties and which are definable in terms of some kind of absolute, universal and transhistorical 'essence'. These signifieds (such as 'Reality', 'Truth', 'Meaning', 'Facts', 'Mind', 'Consciousness', 'Nature', 'Beauty', 'Justice', 'Freedom') are granted an ontological status in which they exist 'prior to' language . In relation to people, the term refers to the stance that human beings (or a specified category of people, such as 'women') have an inherent, unchanging and distinctive nature which can be 'discovered' (to say this of women or men, for instance, is biological essentialism). The stance known as 'humanism' (which is deeply embedded in Western culture) is essentialist, based on the assumption that the individual has an 'inner self' ('personality', 'attitudes' and 'opinions') which is stable, coherent, consistent, unified and autonomous and which determines our behaviour. Bourgeois ideology is essentialist in characterising society in terms of 'free' individuals whose pre-given essences include 'talent', 'efficiency', 'laziness' or 'profligacy'.