Christianity granted women equality only by denying their flesh

Evidence

Paradoxically, it was Christianity that was to proclaim the equality of man and woman on a certain level. Christianity detests the flesh in her; if she rejects the flesh, she is, like him, a creature of God, redeemed by the Savior: here she can take her place beside males, among those souls guaranteed celestial happiness. Men and women are God’s servants, almost as asexual as the angels, who, together with the help of grace, reject earth’s temptations. If she agrees to renounce her animality, woman, from the very fact that she incarnated sin, will also be the most radiant incarnation of the triumph of the elect who have conquered sin. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: how religious traditions have historically granted women dignity only through renunciation of the body, linking to modern purity culture and modesty debates.
• DEFINE: Beauvoir’s dialectic: woman’s spiritual equality is purchased through negation of her sexed body.
• XREF: connects to: Only sovereignty or sanctity could lift women above their sex in medieval society. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 219; An 18th-century polemic denied women immortal souls because they exist only to serve men.; Christian doctrine enshrined the virgin birth to spare God the stain of female embodiment. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 365 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Religion sanctifies women’s enforced passivity as spiritual superiority over men #qualifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1765
• Christian doctrine institutionalized women’s subordination despite early egalitarian impulses #complicates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 204
• Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170
• Granting woman freedom while denying her transcendence yields only negative freedom #exemplifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 406