The oppressor is himself enslaved to the image women uphold.

Evidence

But he himself is a slave to his double: what effort to build up an image in which he is always in danger! After all, it is founded on the capricious freedom of women: it must constantly be made favorable; man is consumed by the concern to appear male, important, superior; he playacts so that others will playact with him; he is also aggressive and nervous; he feels hostility for women because he is afraid of them, and he is afraid of them because he is afraid of the character with whom he is assimilated. What time and energy he wastes in getting rid of, idealizing, and transposing complexes, in speaking about women, seducing, and fearing them! He would be liberated with their liberation. But that is exactly what he fears. And he persists in the mystifications meant to maintain woman in her chains. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1971

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This is the book’s central paradox made vivid: the master is chained to the pedestal he forces the other to hold up — liberation would free the oppressor too, which is precisely why he resists it. Resist one-paragraph summary; the playacting/fear-of-own-character loop is the load-bearing move.
• XREF: Mirrors the master-slave dialectic’s asymmetric dependency (Hegel via Kojève), and anticipates modern ‘toxic masculinity’ discourse framing patriarchy as harm to men themselves. — connects to: Man’s desire to conquer woman is really a pursuit of her freedom itself. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 408; Woman’s complicity with male sovereignty arises from her own transcendence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 156; The oppressed carry an internalized image of the oppressor producing fatalism — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 148 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• A woman’s performed liberation can mask a hidden internalized bondage #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 991
• Woman’s complicity with male sovereignty arises from her own transcendence #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 156
• The oppressed carry an internalized image of the oppressor producing fatalism #expands (0.78) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 148
• The oppressed internalize the oppressor’s consciousness into a divided self. #expands (0.78) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 112
• Benevolent, sugar-coated treatment of subordinates enlists them in their own oppression #expands (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 768
• Oppressed people can internalize the oppressor’s hatred and turn it against themselves. #expands (0.75)
• Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited #responds-to (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714
• Women become immoral by embodying an inhuman ideal imposed on them. #qualifies (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1352