Beaten down by masculine logic, wives respond with silence, tears, or violence

Evidence

In a struggle where her intellectual shortcomings condemn her to losing every time, the young wife has no defense other than silence, or tears, or violence: Her head spinning, as if overcome by blows, Berthe could no longer think when she heard that erratic and strident voice, and Albert continued to envelop her in an imperious drone to confuse her, to injure her in the distress of her humiliated spirit … she was defeated, disarmed before the asperities of an inconceivable argumentation, and to release herself from this unjust power, she cried: Leave me alone! These words seemed too weak to her; she saw a crystal flask on her dressing table, and all at once threw the bottle at Albert. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1299

Categorization

• XREF: The analysis of the wife’s rage as direct frustrated response to verbal domination connects to reading about violence and silence as the only outlets of the powerless (cf. Hays code and ‘the moral panic’ work). — connects to: Separate gendered upbringings produce marital misunderstanding that looks innate. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1283; Women’s reverence for masculine law stems from powerlessness rather than judgment — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1743; Female attempts to dominate men are defensive responses to imposed oppression — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1966 (+2 more)
• FICTION: The image of Albert’s ‘imperious drone’ reducing Berthe to speechlessness before she hurls a perfume flask could seed a domestic scene in a novel about psychological domination.

Broader Connections

• Separate gendered upbringings produce marital misunderstanding that looks innate. #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1283
• Women’s reverence for masculine law stems from powerlessness rather than judgment #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1743
• Female attempts to dominate men are defensive responses to imposed oppression #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1966
• Marriage confirms masculine existence but constitutes feminine existence itself #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1108
• Male violence against women partly stems from resentment of their own bodily arousal #expands (0.72) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 609