Public hostility and dependence on opinion crushed many women writers’ careers

Evidence

Women never go beyond the pretext,” a writer told me. This is true enough. Still amazed at having had permission to explore the world, they take its inventory without trying to discover its meaning. … Women do not challenge the human condition because they have barely begun to be able to assume it entirely. This explains why their works generally lack metaphysical resonance and black humor as well; they do not set the world apart, they do not question it, they do not denounce its contradictions: they take it seriously. … Destiny is not what limits her: it is easy to understand why it has not been possible for her to reach the highest summits, and why it will perhaps not be possible for some time. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1947 (#expands, via linked claim)

The writer who is original, as long as he is not dead, is always scandalous; what is new disturbs and antagonizes; women are still astonished and flattered to be accepted into the world of thinking and art, a masculine world: the woman watches her manners; she does not dare to irritate, explore, explode; she thinks she has to excuse her literary pretensions by her modesty and good taste; she relies on the proven values of conformism; she introduces just the personal note that is expected of her into her literature: she points out that she is a woman with some well-chosen affectations, simpering, and preciosities; so she will excel at producing “best sellers,” but she cannot be counted on to blaze new trails. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1945 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Women’s literary mediocrity stems from social situation, not natural destiny — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1947; Women writers conform to proven values because they fear displeasing — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1945; Material and social circumstances rather than talent barred women from artistic genius (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Women’s literary mediocrity stems from social situation, not natural destiny #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1947
• Women writers conform to proven values because they fear displeasing #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1945
• Material and social circumstances rather than talent barred women from artistic genius #corroborates (0.80)
• The temptations of male support can derail women’s artistic careers. #complicates (0.75)
• Women’s political exclusion redirected their moral outrage into fiction. #expands (0.72) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 504
• Implicit chivalric romantic ideals reduce women’s career and income ambitions #complicates (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 771