Alienation in reproduction paradoxically reveals consciousness-body union for women

Evidence

Only the female human being experiences her body as other than herself. Th e male provides his semen, but his body remains intact in its individuality. Th e female who performs her task for the species becomes other than herself. Interestingly, it is the very fact that she can experience the sexual act of reproduction and pregnancy as alienation that unveils the bonds between the consciousness and the body for the female. Her body is herself, and she feels alienated, taken by the male or the species, when her body is penetrated by the male or when another body grows in her own. She is then diff erent than herself. Th ese experiences threaten the bond between her consciousness and her body; they challenge her being conscious as this body that she is. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 110

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Male transcendence is fleeting while the female is chronically alienated by gestation — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 94; Species reproduction increasingly alienates the female as individuality increases — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 96; Most of the vagina lacks nerve endings, undermining vaginal orgasm doctrine — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 945 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Females uniquely experience their own bodies as alienated otherness #corroborates (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 110
• Male sexuality integrates with individual transcendence while female sexuality does not #complicates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 97
• Slime and femininity both symbolize consciousness’s threat of lapsing into in-itself #complicates (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 378