Perceived natural inferiority follows rather than precedes actual oppression

Evidence

This inability to be self-sufficient brings on a shyness that extends over their whole lives and even marks their work. They think that brilliant triumphs are reserved for men; they do not dare aim too high. It has already been observed that fifteen-year-old girls, comparing themselves with boys, declare, “Boys are better.” This conviction is debilitating. It encourages laziness and mediocrity. … The fundamental reason for this defeatism is that the adolescent girl does not consider herself responsible for her future; she judges it useless to demand much of herself since her lot in the end will not depend on her. Far from destining herself to man because she thinks she is inferior to him, it is because she is destined for him that, in accepting the idea of her inferiority, she constitutes it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 842 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Perceived natural inferiority arises only after actual oppression. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 190; Political membership exclusions historically rest on naturalistic claims of inferiority. — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 478; Perceived instability plus illegitimacy spurs subordinate groups to reject inferiority (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial inferiority ideology emerges from oppression, not merely from perceived difference #corroborates (0.95)
• Self-perceived inferiority in girls arises from destined subordination, not vice versa #corroborates (0.93) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 842