Fullness of the mother’s gaze, not biology itself, makes the girl’s body feel cursed

Evidence

Having a body no longer seems like a shameful failing; in these desires that the adolescent girl repudiates under the maternal gaze, she recognizes the sap mounting in the trees; she is no longer cursed, she proudly claims her kinship with leaves and flowers; she rumples a corolla, and she knows that a living prey will fill her empty hands one day. Flesh is no longer filth: it is joy and beauty. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 913

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the Judeo-Christian shame-of-the-body narrative and prefigures Beauvoir’s later argument that maternity itself is socially constructed as destiny. — connects to: Girls’ symptoms arise from their situation rather than a mysterious feminine soul — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 712; A mother treats her daughter as a double and feels betrayed by her separateness. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1520

Broader Connections

• Girls’ symptoms arise from their situation rather than a mysterious feminine soul #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 712
• A mother treats her daughter as a double and feels betrayed by her separateness. #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1520