The fear of bodily decay can make women hostile to life itself

Evidence

Routine, here again, turns beauty care and wardrobe maintenance into chores. The horror of degradation that all living change involves in some cold or frustrated women arouses a horror of life itself: they seek to preserve themselves as others preserve furniture or jam; this negative stubbornness makes them enemies of their own existence and hostile to others: good meals damage their figures, wine spoils their complexions, smiling too much gives you wrinkles, the sun hurts the skin, rest makes you lethargic, work wears you out, love gives you circles under your eyes, kisses make your cheeks red, caresses deform your breasts, embraces shrivel the flesh, pregnancies disfigure your face and body; you know how young mothers angrily push away the child marveling at their ball gown. “Don’t touch me, your hands are all sticky, you’re going to get me dirty”; the appearance-conscious rejects her husband’s or lover’s ardor with the same rebuffs. Just as one covers furniture with loose covers, she would like to withdraw from men, the world, time. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1571

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Regulation of women’s bodies also stems from anxiety about physicality and death — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 598; Menopausal anxiety manifests as jealousy and persecution fantasies as defense against a finished life. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1718; Slime and femininity both symbolize consciousness’s threat of lapsing into in-itself — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 378 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Regulation of women’s bodies also stems from anxiety about physicality and death #expands (0.85) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 598
• Menopausal anxiety manifests as jealousy and persecution fantasies as defense against a finished life. #exemplifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1718
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding trigger derogation of women when death and animality are salient #expands (0.80) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 603
• Slime and femininity both symbolize consciousness’s threat of lapsing into in-itself #expands (0.75) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 378
• Male violence against women partly stems from resentment of their own bodily arousal #expands (0.70) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 609