Biology gives no basis for gendered immanence and transcendence allegories

Evidence

One should not get carried away with the pleasure of allegories: the ovum has sometimes been likened to immanence and the sperm to transcendence. By giving up its transcendence and mobility, the sperm penetrates the female element: it is grabbed and castrated by the inert mass that absorbs it after cutting off its tail; like all passive actions, this one is magical and disturbing; the male gamete activity is rational, a measurable movement in terms of time and space. In truth, these are merely ramblings. Male and female gametes merge together in the egg; together they cancel each other out in their totality. It is false to claim that the egg voraciously absorbs the male gamete and just as false to say that the latter victoriously appropriates the female cell’s reserves because in the act that merges them, their individuality disappears. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 87

Categorization

• XREF: Directly prefigures the reader’s stated purpose: this is the foundational rejection of biological determinism that structures the entire existentialist-feminist argument. — connects to: Biology alone cannot explain why woman is the Other — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 109; Biology alone cannot establish the primacy of either sex in the species. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 107; Beauvoir’s transcendence and immanence derive from gendered biology, not Sartrean metaphysics — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 600 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir’s transcendence and immanence derive from gendered biology, not Sartrean metaphysics #contradicts (0.95) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 600
• Biology does not condemn women to inferiority; meaning applied to differences does #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1978
• Male sexuality integrates with individual transcendence while female sexuality does not #contradicts (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 97
• Biology shapes but does not determine woman’s situation or destiny #qualifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 102
• Sexual difference cannot be reduced to the biology of gametes #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 88
• Sexuality is an ontological structure of the For-itself, not a physiological given #corroborates (0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1003