Coquetry stems from bodily vitality and relation, not a glandular instinct

Evidence

Experiments have shown that patients suffering from a thyroid deficiency, and thus apathetic and sullen, can be transformed by an injection of glandular extracts: they begin to smile; they become gay and simpering. Psychologists imbued with materialistic metaphysics have boldly declared flirtatiousness an “instinct” secreted by the thyroid gland; but this obscure explanation is no more valid here than for early childhood. The fact is that in all cases of organic deficiency—lymphatism, anemia, and such—the body is endured as a burden; foreign, hostile, it neither hopes for nor promises anything; when it recovers its equilibrium and vitality, the subject at once recognizes it as his, and through it he transcends toward others. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 844

Categorization

• DEFINE: Beauvoir rejects biological/materialist explanations of flirtatiousness in favor of situated, embodied subjectivity.
• XREF: Directly challenges the biological-determinist positions Beauvoir critiques throughout; contrasts with her later rejection of essentialist femininity. — connects to: Sexual coldness tracks vitality expended elsewhere, not constitutional frigidity — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 958

Broader Connections

• Sexual coldness tracks vitality expended elsewhere, not constitutional frigidity #corroborates (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 958