The girl’s dreaminess substitutes for action because she lacks grasp on the world.

Evidence

There is still an enormous difference between this heroine and the objective face that her parents and friends recognize in her. She is also convinced that she is misunderstood: her relationship with herself becomes even more passionate: she becomes intoxicated with her isolation, feels different, superior, exceptional: she promises that the future will take revenge on the mediocrity of her present life. From this narrow and petty existence she escapes by dreams. She has always loved to dream: she gives herself up to this penchant more than ever; she uses poetic clichés to mask a universe that intimidates her, she sanctifies the male sex with moonlight, rose-colored clouds, velvet nights; she turns her body into a marble, jasper, or mother-of-pearl temple; she tells herself foolish fairy tales. She sinks so often into such nonsense because she has no grasp on the world; if she had to act, she would be forced to see clearly, whereas she can wait in the fog. The young man dreams as well: he dreams especially of adventures where he plays an active role. The girl prefers wonderment to adventure; she spreads a vague magic light on things and people. The idea of magic is that of a passive force; because she is doomed to passivity and yet wants power, the adolescent girl must believe in magic: her body’s magic that will bring men under her yoke, the magic of destiny in general that will fulfill her without her having to do anything. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 859

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the girl’s ‘magic belief’ as the religion of a passive being who wants power without action.
• XREF: Contrasts with young men’s active-adventure dreaming; echoes Sartre’s bad faith as flight from action. — connects to: The girl’s emptiness and lack of achievement intensify her transcendent passion toward Nature — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 907; The girl’s rejection and nothingness can become the springboard to freedom

Broader Connections

• The girl’s emptiness and lack of achievement intensify her transcendent passion toward Nature #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 907
• The girl’s rejection and nothingness can become the springboard to freedom #expands (0.75)