A woman in love feels danger constantly because she has alienated her whole being
Evidence
Jealousy for him mainly appears derivative: when things go badly for him or when he feels threatened by life, he feels derided by his wife. By contrast, a woman loving a man in his alterity and transcendence feels in danger at every moment. There is no great distance between betrayal by absence and infidelity. As soon as she feels unloved, she becomes jealous: given her demands, it is always more or less true; her reproaches and her grievances, whatever their pretexts, are converted into jealous scenes: this is how she will express her impatience, the ennui of waiting, the bitter feeling of her dependence, the regret of having only a mutilated existence. Her whole destiny is at stake in every glance her lover casts at another woman since she has alienated her entire being in him. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1879
Categorization
- XREF: Directly extends the Sartrean dialectic of transcendence and alterity from Being and Nothingness applied to gender — consistent with Beauvoir’s opening apparatus in this same book. — connects to: The married woman’s dual struggle produces chronic anxiety and nervousness — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1320; The woman in love re-experiences infantile guilt turned inward as masochism — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1863; Intense romantic infatuation can carry an undertone of instinctive danger — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 222 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Willing to be loved alienates the lover’s freedom into the body-for-others.
#expands(0.85) - Intense romantic infatuation can carry an undertone of instinctive danger
#corroborates(0.82) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 222 - The woman in love re-experiences infantile guilt turned inward as masochism
#expands(0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1863 - Repeated confusion with another person breeds a sense of being haunted by them
#expands(0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 30