The husband becomes the concrete target of woman’s powerless revolt against male privilege

Evidence

But these hopes are always placed in an uncertain future; meanwhile, evil continues to eat away at good; and as woman does not have Jews, Masons, and Bolsheviks to hand, she seeks someone against whom she can rise up concretely: the husband is the perfect victim. He embodies the masculine universe, it is through him that the male society took the woman in hand and duped her; he bears the weight of the world, and if things go wrong, it is his fault. When he comes home in the evening, she complains to him about the children, the suppliers, the housework, the cost of living, her rheumatism, and the weather: and she wants him to feel guilty. She often harbors specific complaints about him; but he is particularly guilty of being a man; he might well have illnesses and problems too—“It just isn’t the same thing”—he is privy to a privilege she constantly resents as an injustice. It is noteworthy that the hostility she feels for the husband or the lover binds her to him instead of moving her away from him; a man who begins to detest wife or mistress tries to get away from her: but she wants to have the man she hates nearby to make him pay. Choosing to recriminate is choosing not to get rid of one’s misfortunes but to wallow in them; her supreme consolation is to set herself up as martyr. Life and men have conquered her: she will make a victory of this very defeat. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1749

Categorization

• XREF: Richly usable for the ‘Immodesty’ piece’s frame about how patriarchal structures channel women’s anger at the nearest male figure; also connects to ‘The Complaints’ rhetorical loop in mid-century anthropology of gender. — connects to: Systematic humiliation by a wife can destroy a husband’s creative confidence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1313; A privileged man’s pity toward disadvantaged women makes him prey to their demands. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1933

Broader Connections

• Systematic humiliation by a wife can destroy a husband’s creative confidence #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1313
• A privileged man’s pity toward disadvantaged women makes him prey to their demands. #expands (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1933