Misogynist diatribes justify legal codes rather than cause them.

Evidence

The sixteenth century sees the codification of the laws perpetuated throughout the ancien régime; by that time feudal habits and customs had totally disappeared, and nothing protects women from men’s claims that they should be chained to the household. The influence of Roman law, so condescending for women, can be perceived here; as in Roman times, the violent diatribes against the stupidity and fragility of the sex were not at the root of the code but are used as justifications; it is after the fact that men find reasons to act as it suits them. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 211

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the standing-library claim that moral panics over dress were class/identity signaling, and to the general pattern of post-hoc rationalization of power arrangements — the ruling order produces the reasons after the fact. — connects to: Legal prohibitions on disclosure punish sexuality without appearing to ban it outright. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1244
• DEFINE: Clarifies Beauvoir’s method: ideology follows material power, not the reverse — a core structural insight for the existentialist-feminist analysis.