A woman needs her male lover to remain transcendent, not relapse into immanence
Evidence
But the god, the master, must not abandon himself to the repose of immanence; it is with a hostile look that the woman contemplates this destroyed transcendence; she detests his animal inertia, this body that no longer exists for her but in itself, abandoned to a contingence whose ransom is her own contingence. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1872
Categorization
- DEFINE: This passage operationalizes the immanence/transcendence pair in the concrete case of the lover’s sleep — the man asleep becomes pure immanent body, losing the transcendence she projects onto him.
- XREF: connects to: Genuine feminist emancipation does not reduce love but deepens mutual understanding between equals. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 616; A married woman’s coquetry seeks male confirmation rather than attachment.; A man’s enduring love can transform woman’s sexual submission into transcendence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1859 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- A man’s enduring love can transform woman’s sexual submission into transcendence
#corroborates(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1859 - Woman in love keeps her man perpetually present to sustain her own being.
#expands(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1874 - Woman’s love-religion seeks possession while paradoxically preserving the lover’s freedom.
#qualifies(0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1882