Marital boredom can trigger fantasies of prostitution in young brides

Evidence

This distress is what often causes long depressions and various psychoses in the young woman. In particular, in the guise of different psychasthenic obsessions, she feels the giddiness of her empty freedom; she develops, for example, fantasies of prostitution we have already seen in young girls. Pierre Janet cites the case of a young bride who could not stand being alone in her apartment because she was tempted to go to the window and wink at passersby. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1274

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘giddiness of her empty freedom’ is striking — boredom produces a vertigo of freedom, not constraint. Worth chasing how Beauvoir distinguishes this from genuine transcendence.
• XREF: connects to: Married partners invent erotic fantasies to restore the alterity marriage erased — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1194; Prostitution fantasies in girls can slide into actual promiscuity — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1658; Marriage’s frustrated eroticism causally drives wives into adultery — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1617 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Prostitution fantasies in girls can slide into actual promiscuity #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1658
• Marriage’s frustrated eroticism causally drives wives into adultery #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1617