Sexuality is a fundamental structure of being-for-others, not a mere physiological accident

Evidence

But do we not have the right to ask whether the problem is not perchance of the same order as that which we encountered apropos of sensations and sense organs? Man, it is said, is a sexual being because he possesses a sex. And if the reverse were true? If sex were only the instrument and, so to speak, the image of a fundamental sexuality? If man possessed a sex only because he is originally and fundamentally a sexual being as a being who exists in the world in relation with other men? Infantile sexuality precedes the physiological maturation of the sex organs. Men who have become eunuchs do not thereby cease to feel desire. Nor do many old men. The fact of being able to make use of a sex organ fit to fertilize and to procure enjoyment represents only one phase and one aspect of our sexual life. … I desire a human being, not an insect or a mollusk, and I desire him (or her) as he is and as I am in situation in the world and as he is an Other for me and as I am an Other for him. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 970

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses the commonsense ‘body determines desire’ causal direction in a way that mirrors Sartre’s earlier treatment of sensation and the sense organs. — connects to: Sexuality is an ontological structure of the For-itself, not a physiological given — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1003; Sexuality expresses an underlying quest for being rather than grounding it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 127; Body-for-others is studied through the identity of my-being-for-the-Other structures (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Lays groundwork for the ontological distinction between facticity (having this body) and fundamental structures of the For-itself.
• SEED: The claim that desire is directed at a human being situated in a world, not at a mere organism, could anchor an essay on how desire presupposes intersubjective recognition.

Broader Connections

• Sexuality is an ontological structure of the For-itself, not a physiological given #corroborates (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1003
• Sexuality expresses an underlying quest for being rather than grounding it. #complicates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 127
• Body-for-others is studied through the identity of my-being-for-the-Other structures #expands (0.75)