Fear of woman, not mere subordination, drove legislators to organize her oppression.

Evidence

Afraid of woman, legislators organize her oppression. Only the harmful aspects of the ambivalent virtues attributed to her are retained: from sacred she becomes unclean. Eve, given to Adam to be his companion, lost humankind; to punish men, the pagan gods invent women, and Pandora, the firstborn of these female creatures, is the one who unleashes all the evil that humanity endures. The Other is passivity confronting activity, diversity breaking down unity, matter opposing form, disorder resisting order. Woman is thus doomed to Evil. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 169

Categorization

• XREF: Ties directly to the prior chapter’s discussion of woman’s sacred-and-unclean ambivalence. — connects to: Legal emancipation historically triggers heightened insistence on female inferiority. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 196; Women’s emancipation increased male hostility rather than reducing it. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 298; Both oppressed and oppressors fear freedom, but differently — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 179 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The deceptively simple claim that fear, not contempt, grounds patriarchal legislation, is a subtle reversal of the common reading of misogyny.

Broader Connections

• Legal emancipation historically triggers heightened insistence on female inferiority. #expands (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 196
• Women’s emancipation increased male hostility rather than reducing it. #corroborates (0.88) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 298
• Women’s defenselessness functions as the legal title of their oppression #expands (0.85)
• Both oppressed and oppressors fear freedom, but differently #expands (0.80) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 179
• Efforts to overcome gender oppression trigger backlash even from healthy people, not just paranoids #corroborates (0.78)