Beauvoir’s ‘abandon’ means mutual giving, not mindless self-loss.

Evidence

In the fi rst of Th e Second Sex passages conveying Beauvoir’s “muted voice,” she writes that “sex pleasure in women is a magic spell; it demands complete abandon” (SS, 376; DS II, 162). Th is “abandon” has been interpreted by Jo-Ann Fuchs as a “mindlessness” similar to the listlessness of the southern slaves. But this is not at all what Beauvoir meant. In her view, woman’s complete “abandon” corresponds, rather, to the fact that she is “profoundly beside herself because her whole being is moved by desire and excitement,” and to her longing for oneness with her lover (SS, 396; DS II, 162). If, however, a lover takes without giving, or gives pleasure without receiving, the woman feels that she has been used, objectifi ed, and the union does not take place. Only if giving and receiving are combined, or, as Beauvoir writes a little later, “if the words to receive and to give become interchangeable does the union take place” (SS, 167; DS II, 401). — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 137

Categorization

• XREF: Directly corrects Fuchs’s reading and also rebuts the common Sartrean suspicion of self-abandon as bad faith, connecting to the chapter’s core thematic of reciprocity. — connects to: Abandonment means total responsibility, not helpless passivity — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1292; Sartre’s late Hope Now ideas emerged from Beauvoir’s notion of reciprocal self-abandon — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 156; Beauvoir’s interdependence ethic overlaps with Sartre’s own considered view — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 173 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies what Beauvoir’s ‘complete abandon’ actually denotes — mutual recognition and interchangeable giving/receiving — against a misreading.

Broader Connections

• Sartre’s late Hope Now ideas emerged from Beauvoir’s notion of reciprocal self-abandon #corroborates (0.90) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 156
• Liberation is a mutual process, not a gift or self-achievement #expands (0.85) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 4
• Total abandonment and isolation can register as pleasure rather than dread #complicates (0.80) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 506
• Beauvoir’s interdependence ethic overlaps with Sartre’s own considered view #corroborates (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 173