Psychosomatic illness can be a lifelong revenge against a man

Evidence

A woman of 36 years of age suffers from such back pain across “the small of her back” for the past 14 years. These pains are so unbearable that she is forced to stay in bed for weeks … she felt the great pains for the first time during her wedding night. On that occasion, during the defloration, which caused her considerable pain, her husband exclaimed: “You have deceived me! You are not a virgin!” Her pains in the back represent the fixation of this painful episode. Her illness is her vengeance on the man. The various cures have cost him considerable money for her innumerable treatments … This woman was anaesthetic during her wedding night and she remained in this condition throughout her marital experience … The wedding night was for her a terrible mental shock that has influenced her whole life. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 963

Categorization

• DEFINE: Crystallizes Beauvoir’s argument that frigidity is a deliberate (if unconscious) refusal — an embodied ‘no’.
• XREF: connects to: Judgmental fathers and family discord drive girls toward severe psychosomatic illness — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 763; The father’s inaction can intensify a child’s suffering. — Dave Pelzer, A Child Called ‘It’, 137

Broader Connections

• Judgmental fathers and family discord drive girls toward severe psychosomatic illness #expands (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 763
• The father’s inaction can intensify a child’s suffering. #expands (0.85) — Dave Pelzer, A Child Called ‘It’, 137