Desire’s paroxysm requires absence of all inhibition, both physical and moral

Evidence

The violence of uncontrolled tendencies can bring about tightening, contraction, or tension: some women scratch or bite, their bodies arching, infused with an unaccustomed force; but these phenomena are only produced when a certain paroxysm is attained, and it is attained only if first the absence of all inhibition—physical as well as moral—permits a concentration of all living energy into the sexual act. This means that it is not enough for the young girl to let it happen; if she is docile, languid, or removed, she satisfies neither her partner nor herself. She must participate actively in an adventure that neither her virgin body nor her consciousness—laden with taboos, prohibitions, prejudices, and exigencies—desires positively. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 958

Categorization

• XREF: The conclusion lands on the girl’s body and consciousness being laden with taboos and prohibitions — setting up the psychological chapters that follow and echoing her earlier discussion of the girl’s alienated body. — connects to: Moral inhibitions do not act at a distance and depend on proximity — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 546; Moral inhibition is neutralized by making victims remote and invisible — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 550

Broader Connections

• Moral inhibitions do not act at a distance and depend on proximity #expands (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 546
• Moral inhibition is neutralized by making victims remote and invisible #complicates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 550