Granting woman freedom while denying her transcendence yields only negative freedom

Evidence

So as to tear woman from nature, so as to subjugate her to man through ceremonies and contracts, she was elevated to the dignity of a human person; she was granted freedom. But freedom is precisely what escapes all servitude; and if it is bestowed on a being originally possessed by malevolent forces, it becomes dangerous. … And all the more so as man stopped at half measures; he accepted woman into the masculine world only by making her a servant, in thwarting her transcendence; the freedom she was granted could only have a negative use; it only manifests itself in refusal. Woman became free only in becoming captive; she renounces this human privilege to recover her power as natural object. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 406

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core existentialist distinction: positive/transcendent freedom vs. negative freedom of refusal — an analytical apparatus central to the whole book.
• QUESTION: How does this account of women’s ‘negative freedom’ relate to Beauvoir’s later positive project of woman as subject? Worth tracking through the Ethics chapters.
• XREF: connects to: Individual women transcend their condition only when granted masculine possibilities by chance — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 227; Christianity granted women equality only by denying their flesh — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367; Women who claim freedom reject being reduced to their bodies as passive flesh — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Blocked transcendence leaves woman unable to be defined by her acts #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 662
• Women who claim freedom reject being reduced to their bodies as passive flesh #corroborates (0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041
• Exalting woman spiritually sanctions her earthly subordination rather than liberating her #contradicts (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 591