Mystification makes the oppressed mistake social domination for natural necessity
Evidence
In Beauvoir’s words: … Th ere are cases where the slave does not know his servitude and where it is necessary to bring the seed of his liberation to him from the outside: his submission is not enough to justify the tyranny which is imposed upon him. Th e slave is submissive when one has succeeded in mystifying him in such a way that his situation does not seem to him to be imposed by men, but to be immediately given by nature, by the gods, by the powers against whom revolt has no meaning; thus, he does not accept his condition through a resignation of his freedom since he cannot even dream of any other. (EA, 85) Th is passage is striking not only because of the passionate eloquence of Beauvoir’s prose but also because of how subtly, yet decisively, she is parting company with a Sartrean understanding of freedom as an inviolable experience of transcendence that can never actually be diminished by the actions of others. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 651
Categorization
- DEFINE: Beauvoir’s concept of ‘mystification’ — how oppression is naturalized so revolt seems meaningless.
- XREF: The ‘mystification’ mechanism parallels the earlier chapter’s discussion of existential resources and oppression. — connects to: Oppressors project faults onto the oppressed to justify their own domination — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1758; Societal requirements transform into self-justifying norms devoid of social origin; Oppression functions by domesticating and submerging consciousness. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 121 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Essentialist explanations transform social positions into natural and inevitable ones
#expands(0.90) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1412 - Societal requirements transform into self-justifying norms devoid of social origin
#expands(0.85) - Bad faith mistakes a made condition of inferiority for a fixed essence
#expands(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 59 - Oppression functions by domesticating and submerging consciousness.
#expands(0.75) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 121 - Religion offers oppressed groups a mirage of transcendence as compensation for immanence
#exemplifies(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1765