Puberty’s meaning differs by sex because it announces different futures.

Evidence

This crisis takes place at a still tender age; the boy only reaches adolescence at about fifteen or sixteen; the girl changes into a woman at thirteen or fourteen. But the essential difference in their experience does not stem from there; nor does it lie in the physiological manifestations that give it its awful shock in the case of the girl: puberty has a radically different meaning for the two sexes because it does not announce the same future to them. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 760

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the core existentialist move: a biological fact (puberty) gains its human meaning only from the situation it announces — the future it opens for the girl vs. the boy.
• XREF: connects to: Puberty converts the girl’s imagined future passivity into a settled bodily fate of waiting — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 832; Gender is a social power structure rather than a genetic trait.; Gender differences are learned developmental outcomes, not natural expressions — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 668 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Puberty converts the girl’s imagined future passivity into a settled bodily fate of waiting #exemplifies (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 832
• Gender is a social power structure rather than a genetic trait. #complicates (0.75)
• Sexual experiences can be rewarding yet felt from radically different gendered perspectives #expands (0.72)
• Gender differences are learned developmental outcomes, not natural expressions #complicates (0.70) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 668