Middle-class men are as immanent as women, except women show more initiative
Evidence
There are many men who are, like woman, confined within the domain of the intermediary, of inessential means; the worker escapes from it through political action, expressing a revolutionary will; but men from what we precisely call the “middle” class settle in this sphere deliberately; destined like the woman to the repetition of daily tasks, alienated in ready-made values, respecting public opinion, and only seeking vague comforts on earth, the employee, the shopkeeper, and the bureaucrat hold no superiority over their women companions; cooking, washing, running her home, raising her children, the woman shows more initiative and independence than the man enslaved to orders; he must obey his superiors every day, wear a removable collar, and affirm his social rank; she can lie about in a housecoat in her apartment, sing, laugh with her women neighbors; she acts as she pleases, takes small risks, and efficiently tries to attain a few results. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1767
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: Beauvoir’s striking move: the middle-class bureaucrat is just as trapped in immanence as the housewife, yet Beauvoir grants the woman more genuine initiative and purchase on reality — this nuance resists a facile either/or about who is more oppressed.
- ADDENDUM: This account of woman’s concrete grasp on reality versus the bureaucrat’s abstracts parallels the essay on trees as infrastructure in its attention to tangible, embodied labor versus abstract systems.
- XREF: connects to: Women’s equal work earned half men’s wages across Western countries.; Observed male-female differences reflect social situation, not fixed essence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 608; Male superiority is instilled through adult attitudes, not spontaneously felt — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 681 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Observed male-female differences reflect social situation, not fixed essence
#corroborates(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 608 - Male superiority is instilled through adult attitudes, not spontaneously felt
#corroborates(0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 681 - Women who implicitly idealize men show reduced interest in personal power.
#complicates(0.80) - Women’s economic dependence makes them define themselves through men’s desires.
#qualifies(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 298