Male claims about procreation are acts of faith that seize power, not scientific findings

Evidence

There is no ideological revolution more important in the primitive period than the one replacing matrilineal descent with agnation; from that time on, the mother is lowered to the rank of wet nurse or servant, and the father’s sovereignty is exalted; he is the one who holds rights and transmits them. … It is clear that these affirmations are not the results of scientific discoveries; they are acts of faith. … In attributing his posterity exclusively to himself, man frees himself definitively from subjugation by women, and he triumphs over woman in the domination of the world. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 168

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the existentialist theme of situation and freedom — men asserting transcendence by denying women’s role in creation; parallels Nietzsche’s will-to-power readings. — connects to: The virgin-desire myth serves male domination, not biological fact — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 948; Pre-scientific theories of conception mirrored patriarchal social myths — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 81
• DEFINE: Defines agnation as the shift to patrilineal descent that grounds later analyses of woman as Other through kinship.
• BMF: Apollo’s denial of motherhood as parenting evokes the patrilineal dynasty logic in Things Fall Apart, where Okonkwo’s entire identity hangs on agnatic descent and the fear of being ‘womanly’ or a ‘shemale’ — the same exaltation of the father as sole begetter.

Broader Connections

• The virgin-desire myth serves male domination, not biological fact #expands (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 948
• Pre-scientific theories of conception mirrored patriarchal social myths #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 81