Excrement contests among boys can confer penis-like prestige through objectified alienation

Evidence

There are countries where men urinate sitting down, and there are women who urinate standing up: this is the way among many women peasants; but in contemporary Western society, custom generally has it that they squat, while the standing position is reserved to males. This is the most striking sexual difference for the little girl. To urinate she has to squat down, remove some clothes, and above all hide, a shameful and uncomfortable servitude. Shame increases in the frequent cases in which she suffers from involuntary urinary emissions, when bursting out laughing, for example; control is worse than for boys. For them, the urinary function is like a free game with the attraction of all games in which freedom is exercised; the penis can be handled, through it one can act, which is one of the child’s deep interests. A little girl seeing a boy urinate declared admiringly: “How practical!” The stream can be aimed at will, the urine directed far away: the boy draws a feeling of omnipotence from it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 685 (#expands, via linked claim)

Feminine arousal can reach an intensity unknown by man. Male desire is violent but localized, and he comes out of it—except perhaps in the instant of ejaculation—conscious of himself; woman, by contrast, undergoes a real alienation; for many, this metamorphosis is the most voluptuous and definitive moment of love; but it also has a magical and frightening side. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 987 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Female sexual arousal involves self-alienation whereas male desire remains localized and self-conscious — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 987; Urination posture encodes gender hierarchy felt from early childhood — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 685

Broader Connections

• Urination posture encodes gender hierarchy felt from early childhood #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 685
• Female sexual arousal involves self-alienation whereas male desire remains localized and self-conscious #complicates (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 987