Frigidity is a revenge act born of resentment, not biological dysfunction

Evidence

Man’s attitude is thus of extreme importance. If his desire is violent and brutal, his partner feels changed into a mere thing in his arms; but if he is too self-controlled, too detached, he does not constitute himself as flesh; he asks woman to make herself object without her being able to have a hold on him in return. In both cases, her pride rebels; to reconcile her metamorphosis into a carnal object with the demands of her subjectivity, she must make him her prey as she makes herself his. This is often why the woman obstinately remains frigid. If the lover lacks seductive techniques, if he is cold, negligent, or clumsy, he fails to awaken her sexuality, or he leaves her unsatisfied; but if he is virile and skillful, he can provoke reactions of rejection; woman fears his domination: some can find pleasure only with timid, inept, or even almost impotent men, ones who do not scare them away. It is easy for a man to awaken hostility and resentment in his mistress. Resentment is the most common source of feminine frigidity; in bed, the woman makes the male pay for all the affronts she considers she has been subjected to by an insulting coldness; her attitude is often one of an aggressive inferiority complex: since you do not love me, since I have flaws preventing me from being liked, and since I am despicable, I will not surrender to love, desire, and pleasure either. This is how she exacts vengeance both on him and on herself if he has humiliated her by his negligence, if he has aroused her jealousy, if he has declared himself too slowly, if he has made her his mistress when she desired marriage; the complaint can appear suddenly and set off this reaction even during a relationship that began happily. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 989

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s broader project: woman as Other whose subjectivity is denied, so sexuality becomes a site of resentment — parallels the immanence/transcendence conflict she frames throughout. — connects to: Sexual frigidity can stem from emotional mismatch rather than physical constitution — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1626; Supposed frigidity in marriage functions as a covert weapon against male domination — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1304
• SEED: Angle: frigidity-as-resistance — reading psychosomatic sexual refusal as a political act of reclaiming subjectivity from objectification.

Broader Connections

• Supposed frigidity in marriage functions as a covert weapon against male domination #expands (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1304
• Sexual frigidity can stem from emotional mismatch rather than physical constitution #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1626