Beauvoir holds that both sexes are simultaneously passive flesh and active freedom.

Evidence

True to what she has said about biological facts and how they may fail to determine the individual, Beauvoir insists that woman’s sexuality is both feminine and masculine, as is that of man: “As a matter of fact, man, like woman, is fl esh, therefore passive, the plaything of his hormones and of the species, the restless prey of his desires. And she, like him, in the midst of the carnal fever, is a consenting, a voluntary gift , an activity; they live out in their several fashions the strange ambiguity of existence made body” (SS, 728). — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 114

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Beauvoir’s core claim that biology does not determine lived sexuality — both sexes are ambiguity made body.
• XREF: connects to: Beauvoir’s philosophy centers on how constraint and freedom shape our becoming — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 1027; Beauvoir’s interdependence thesis is compatible with her irrepressible freedom — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 182; Freedom and facticity are mutually condition each other’s existence. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1176

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir’s philosophy centers on how constraint and freedom shape our becoming #expands (0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1027
• Freedom and facticity are mutually condition each other’s existence. #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1176
• Beauvoir’s interdependence thesis is compatible with her irrepressible freedom #corroborates (0.80) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 182