Female intactness is mythically imagined as a threatening mana that ruins male vigor

Evidence

Certain peoples imagine the presence of a serpent in the vagina that would bite the spouse during the breaking of the hymen; terrifying virtues are given to virginal blood, linked to menstrual blood, and capable of ruining the male’s vigor. These images express the idea that the feminine principle is so powerful and threatening because it is intact. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 342

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the connection to menstrual taboo sources elsewhere in the book and anthropological literature on mana/contagion. — connects to: Female passivity is socially imposed, not biologically determined, and self-reinforces through a vicious circle — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 691; Male violence against women partly stems from resentment of their own bodily arousal — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 609; The seductive-woman archetype persists as a cultural figure of danger.
• SHARE: The serpent-in-vagina belief and the Brahmans being paid high wages to deflower brides are the sort of detail an anthropology-minded friend would savor.

Broader Connections

• Male violence against women partly stems from resentment of their own bodily arousal #complicates (0.80) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 609
• Female passivity is socially imposed, not biologically determined, and self-reinforces through a vicious circle #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 691