Girls accept femininity as a free game before adult duty makes it binding

Evidence

The girl—unless she is particularly graceless—accepts her femininity in the end; and she is often happy to enjoy gratuitously the pleasures and triumphs she gets from settling definitively into her destiny; as she is not yet bound to any duty, irresponsible, available, for her the present seems neither empty nor disappointing since it is just one step; dressing and flirting still have the lightness of a game, and her dreams of the future disguise their futility. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 922

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the girl’s transition into femininity as play-position before immanence sets in — the ‘available, irresponsible’ stance defines the girl’s situation.
• XREF: connects to: The girl resists feminization because it means mutilation, before accepting it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 710; A girl’s earlier temperamental choices shape how she responds to becoming feminine. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 844; Games let people play with the forms of sociability itself

Broader Connections

• A girl’s earlier temperamental choices shape how she responds to becoming feminine. #qualifies (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 844
• Games let people play with the forms of sociability itself #exemplifies (0.78)