Lawrence makes woman valuable only as nourisher of male transcendence

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Being the very substance of man’s poetic activities, woman is understandably his inspiration: the Muses are women. The Muse is the conduit between the creator and the natural springs he draws from. It is through woman’s spirit deeply connected to nature that man will explore the depths of silence and the fertile night. The Muse creates nothing on her own; she is a wise sibyl making herself the docile servant of a master. Even in concrete and practical spheres, her counsel will be useful. Man wishes to attain the goals he sets without the help of his peers, and he would find another man’s opinion inopportune; but he supposes that the woman speaks to him in the name of other values, in the name of a wisdom that he does not claim to have, more instinctive than his own, more immediately in accord with the real; these are the “intuitions” that Egeria uses to counsel and guide; he consults her without fear for his self-esteem as he consults the stars. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 397 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lawrence frames the possessive woman as dragging man back into immanence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 500; Lawrence’s ideal denies woman even clitoral sexual autonomy in eroticism — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 503; Granting woman freedom while denying her transcendence yields only negative freedom — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 406 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Granting woman freedom while denying her transcendence yields only negative freedom #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 406
• Woman’s supposed intuition is prized because it asks nothing of man’s ego. #expands (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 397