Beauvoir’s unconventional arrangement with Sartre suited her better than marriage would have

Evidence

Had she and Sartre attempted a normal marriage, they would either have split up or it would have ended in sexual frustration. Instead, she had a great sex life — better than Sartre’s, apparently, thanks to his squeamishness. Beauvoir’s memoirs attest to moods of ‘languorous excitement’ and ‘feelings of quite shattering intensity’ in her youth, and her later relationships were physically fulfilling. Sartre, if we can judge by the vivid descriptions in his books, found sex a nightmarish process of struggling not to drown in slime and gloop. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 385

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the lifelong partnership/relationship arrangements between other intellectual couples; also contrasts with the ‘immodesty’ angle of gender dynamics. — connects to: Beauvoir studies contests her subordination to Sartre as a mere follower — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 44; Sartre and Beauvoir deliberately lived their philosophy of freedom in their relationship — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 50

Broader Connections

• Sartre and Beauvoir deliberately lived their philosophy of freedom in their relationship #corroborates (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 50
• Beauvoir studies contests her subordination to Sartre as a mere follower #expands (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 44