The mystical exaltation of woman still subordinates her as man’s instrument of salvation
Evidence
But if women are so singularly devoted to saintly heroism, it is above all because Claudel still grasps them from a masculine perspective. To be certain, each of the sexes embodies the Other in the eyes of the complementary sex; but to his man’s eyes it is, in spite of everything, the woman who is often regarded as an absolute other. There is a mystical surpassing insofar as “we know that in and of ourselves we are insufficient, hence the power of woman over us, like the power of Grace.” The “we” here represents only males and not the human species, and faced with their imperfection, woman is the appeal of infinity. In a way, there is a new principle of subordination here: by the communion of saints each individual is an instrument for all others; but woman is more precisely the instrument of salvation for man, without any reciprocity. The Satin Slipper is the epic of Rodrigo’s salvation. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 589
Categorization
- DEFINE: The ‘absolute other’ — woman as the Other in a way man never is — is a core piece of Beauvoir’s analytical apparatus.
- XREF: connects to: The Virgin Mary replaced goddesses with a male-serving image of woman — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367; Christianity spiritualized woman into the soul of home and nation — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 377; Woman is prized as yielding material that resists mastery enough to remain precious — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 376 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Patriarchal religions purify woman of her stained nature through male-defined submission
#corroborates(0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 170 - Mystical revelation serves women’s own already-chosen aims rather than directing them
#contradicts(0.88) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1915 - Mystical love is a narcissistic apotheosis where God’s gaze mirrors the woman’s self-image
#expands(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1906