Marriage denies woman the particularity of desire that man retains as citizen

Evidence

The relationships of mother and wife, however, are those of particular individuals, partly in the form of something natural pertaining to desire, partly in the form of something negative which sees in those relationships only something evanescent and also, again, the particular individual is for that very reason a contingent element which can be replaced by another individual. In the ethical household, it is not a question of this particular husband, this particular child, but simply of husband and children generally; the relationships of the woman are based, not on feeling, but on the universal. The difference between the ethical life of the woman and that of the man consists just in this, that in her vocation as an individual and in her pleasure, her interest is centred on the universal and remains alien to the particularity of desire; whereas in the husband these two sides are separated; and since he possesses as a citizen the self-conscious power of universality, he thereby acquires the right of desire and, at the same time, preserves his freedom in regard to it. Since, then, in this relationship of the wife there is an admixture of particularity, her ethical life is not pure; but in so far as it is ethical, the particularity is a matter of indifference, and the wife is without the moment of knowing herself as this particular self in the other partner. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1135

Categorization

• XREF: This is Beauvoir drawing on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right on the ethical household vs. civil society — connects to the foundational Continental reading of Hegel in this chapter. — connects to: Kierkegaard’s doctrine denies reflective agency to women in marriage — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1159; Marriage makes woman contingent while man mediates her to the universe — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1196; Traditional marriage confines woman to immanence and denies her transcendence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1196 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the crucial Hegelian distinction: woman’s ethical life centers on the universal/abstract, man’s on the particular/concrete — which grounds the analysis of marriage’s asymmetry.

Broader Connections

• Marriage annexes women to the husband’s universe #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1109
• Marriage confirms masculine existence but constitutes feminine existence itself #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1108
• Marriage’s ethical dignity actually suppresses rather than dignifies women’s sexuality #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1136