The male sex organ confronts man with his own imprisoned passivity.

Evidence

Man claims to make Spirit triumph over Life, activity over passivity; his consciousness keeps nature at a distance, his will shapes it, but in the figure of his sex organ he rediscovers life, nature, and passivity in himself. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 353

Categorization

• XREF: This is the germ of Beauvoir’s later argument that woman is not uniquely immanent — man’s own flesh forces the same confrontation. Foreshadows her critique of Sartre’s privileging of the transcendent cogito. — connects to: Man’s attempt to possess woman reverses into his own entrapment in the flesh — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 354; The failure to possess woman drives man into self-alienation. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 355; Male violence against women partly stems from resentment of their own bodily arousal — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 609

Broader Connections

• Man’s attempt to possess woman reverses into his own entrapment in the flesh #expands (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 354
• The failure to possess woman drives man into self-alienation. #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 355
• Male violence against women partly stems from resentment of their own bodily arousal #expands (0.78) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 609