Sexual conflict could be a fleeting historical moment rather than an original curse.

Evidence

Many men would still subscribe to these words of Jules Laforgue; many think that there will always be Sturm und Drang between the two sexes and that fraternity will never be possible for them. The fact is that neither men nor women are satisfied with each other today. But the question is whether it is an original curse that condemns them to tear each other apart or whether the conflicts that pit them against each other express a transitory moment in human history. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1964

Categorization

• QUESTION: Beauvoir frames the central question of the conclusion as an empirical-historical one: is gender conflict permanent or transitory? Worth holding as the book’s closing hinge.
• XREF: connects to: The original sexual contest need not have resolved in man’s favor — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 58; The Freudian unconscious may be a historically contingent artifact, not a timeless structure — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 406

Broader Connections

• The original sexual contest need not have resolved in man’s favor #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 58
• The Freudian unconscious may be a historically contingent artifact, not a timeless structure #qualifies (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 406