The Other’s look turns the free for-itself into a fixed thing

Evidence

This nihilating flight is entirely reapprehended by the in-itself and fixed in in-itself as soon as the Other appears. The for-itself when alone transcends the world; it is the nothing by which there are things. The Other by rising up confers on the for-itself a being-in-itself-in-the-midst-of-the-world as a thing among things. This petrifaction in in-itself by the Other’s look is the pro-found meaning of the myth of Medusa. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1045

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the ontological mechanism linking the Other’s look to petrifaction as ‘being-in-itself-in-the-midst-of-the-world’, with the Medusa myth as its emblem.
• XREF: This is the systematic backdrop for Beauvoir’s account of woman as the fixed Other; also connects to the look-as-objectification theme in the earlier chapter on the look. — connects to: The Other’s look proves a beyond-the-world realm irreducible to spatial relations; The for-itself’s free spontaneity makes the Other’s existence possible — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 781; Making the Other an object transcends and neutralizes his transcendence. (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• The Other’s look freezes one’s free project into a fixed character. #corroborates (0.95) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1284
• The Other’s look reveals my body as an object-for-others #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 913
• The Other’s look makes the self haunt an unreflective consciousness #expands (0.82) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 727
• The Other-as-object reinforces the world’s objectivity while the Other-as-look dissolves it #expands (0.78)
• Encountering the Other reveals the for-itself having an outside and being embedded in being #expands (0.75)
• The other’s love reveals the self by exposing its own otherness #qualifies (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1884