Passive sexual submission is not masochistic when the subject retains her freedom
Evidence
Moreover, it is true that the woman’s sexual role is largely passive; but to live this passive situation in its immediacy is no more masochistic than the male’s normal aggressiveness is sadistic; woman can transcend caresses, arousal, and penetration toward achieving her own pleasure, thus maintaining the affirmation of her subjectivity; she can also seek union with the lover and give herself to him, which signifies a surpassing of herself and not an abdication. Masochism exists when the individual chooses to constitute himself as a pure thing through the consciousness of the other, to represent oneself to oneself as a thing, to play at being a thing. “Masochism is an attempt not to fascinate the other by my objectivity but to make myself be fascinated by my objectivity for others.” Sade’s Juliette or the young virgin from La philosophie dans le boudoir (Philosophy in the Boudoir), who both give themselves to the male in all possible ways, but for their own pleasure, are not in any way masochists. Lady Chatterley and Kate, in the total abandon they consent to, are not masochists. To speak of masochism, one has to posit the self and this alienated double has to be considered as founded on the other’s freedom. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1009
Categorization
- DEFINE: Beauvoir precisely delimits masochism: pleasure-seeking submission that preserves subjectivity is not masochism; masochism requires the deliberate constitution of the self as pure object for another’s freedom.
- XREF: This definitional move echoes Sartre’s ‘bad faith’ and anticipates later feminist theory distinguishing chosen passivity from imposed objectification. — connects to: Masochistic submission depends on the lover’s maintained prestige — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1863; Dominating women can surrender sexually precisely because they remain masters — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041; Women who claim freedom reject being reduced to their bodies as passive flesh — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1041
Broader Connections
- Masochistic submission depends on the lover’s maintained prestige
#qualifies(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1863