Social marginality from family is what allowed courtesans to achieve near-equality with men

Evidence

And because they escaped from their families, because they lived on the margins of society, they also escaped men: they could seem to be their counterparts, almost their equals. In Aspasia, in Phryne, and in Lais, the superiority of the free woman asserted itself over the virtuous mother of a family. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 191

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete early statement of how the family entraps women in immanence while marginality offers the only route to something like transcendent freedom.
• XREF: connects to: Respectability politics can both empower and imprison a marginalized group — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1128; The courtesan’s physical freedom masks a total economic dependence on masculine desire — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1687; The poor serf marriage grounded equality through shared nothingness and mutual labor bonds. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 210

Broader Connections

• The courtesan’s physical freedom masks a total economic dependence on masculine desire #complicates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1687
• Respectability politics can both empower and imprison a marginalized group #expands (0.70) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1128