Female homosexuality is a reconciliation of autonomy with bodily passivity

Evidence

Woman is an existent who is asked to make herself object; as subject she has an aggressive sensuality that does not find satisfaction in the masculine body: from this are born the conflicts her eroticism must overcome. The system is considered normal that, delivering her as prey to a male, restores her sovereignty by putting a baby in her arms: but this “naturalism” is determined by a more or less well understood social interest. Even heterosexuality permits other solutions. Homosexuality for woman is one attempt among others to reconcile her autonomy with the passivity of her flesh. And if nature is invoked, it could be said that every woman is naturally homosexual. The lesbian is characterized simply by her refusal of the male and her preference for feminine flesh; but every adolescent female fears penetration and masculine domination, and she feels a certain repulsion for the man’s body; on the contrary, the feminine body is for her, as for man, an object of desire. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1035

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s core subject/object and immanence/transcendence framework established earlier in the book, and to Sartre’s being-for-itself/being-for-others in Being and Nothingness. — connects to: Sexual difference cannot be reduced to activity versus passivity — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 96; Female sexual availability and passivity are structural features ordinary anatomy and force enforce — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 946; Lesbianism is neither failure nor superiority but a free choice. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1034 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Establishes her working definition of the lesbian: not her preference for women but her exclusiveness of preference, and the refusal of the male.

Broader Connections

• Sexual experiences can be rewarding yet felt from radically different gendered perspectives #expands (0.75)
• Female homosexual ties among prostitutes form a counter-universe restoring human dignity #exemplifies (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1676