Mutual self-exposure among women produces cruelty that difference-based respect prevents

Evidence

But sincerity also has a price. Because they show themselves freely, without caring either to hide or to control themselves, women incite each other to incredible violence. Man and women intimidate each other because they are different: he feels pity and apprehension toward her; he strives to treat her courteously, indulgently, and circumspectly; she respects him and somewhat fears him, she tries to control herself in front of him; each one tries to spare the mysterious other whose feelings and reactions are hard to discern. Women among themselves are pitiless; they foil, provoke, chase, attack, and lead each other on to the limits of abjection. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1076

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with the solidarity most feminist accounts assume among women; resonates with the dynamics of close female friendships and sisterly rivalry. — connects to: Unchecked power over others, not participant nature, drives cruelty — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 475; Women competing for male favor are inherently hostile to each other

Broader Connections

• Unchecked power over others, not participant nature, drives cruelty #complicates (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 475