The penis becomes a measure of worth because it embodies transcendence concretely

Evidence

The penis is singularly adapted to play this role of “double” for the little boy: for him it is both a foreign object and himself; it is a plaything, a doll, and it is his own flesh; parents and nurses treat it like a little person. So, clearly, it becomes for the child “an alter ego usually craftier, more intelligent, and more clever than the individual”; because the urinary function and later the erection are midway between voluntary processes and spontaneous processes, because it is the impulsive, quasi-foreign source of subjectively experienced pleasure, the penis is posited by the subject as himself and other than himself; specific transcendence is embodied in it in a graspable way, and it is a source of pride; because the phallus is set apart, man can integrate into his personality the life that flows from it. This is why, then, the length of the penis, the force of the urine stream, the erection, and the ejaculation become for him the measure of his own worth. It is thus a constant that the phallus is the fleshly incarnation of transcendence; since it is also a constant that the child feels transcended, that is, frustrated in his transcendence by his father, the Freudian idea of the castration complex will persist. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 128

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Beauvoir’s most original existentialist re-grounding of Freud’s castration complex, replacing anatomical destiny with a story about transcendence and alienation.
• BMF: The little boy’s penis as ‘an alter ego, a doll, a plaything that is his own flesh’ evokes the relational other-self dynamic running through We (Zamyatin) — the way the individual projects transcendence onto a quasi-foreign object.
• XREF: connects to: Boy’s penis pride is a compensatory invention protecting against weaning loss — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 682; Lacking a penis to externalize transcendence, the girl makes her whole self an object — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 128; Male sexuality integrates with individual transcendence while female sexuality does not — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 97 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Lacking a penis to externalize transcendence, the girl makes her whole self an object #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 128
• Male sexuality integrates with individual transcendence while female sexuality does not #corroborates (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 97
• Male and female eroticism are experienced as transcendence versus alienated immanence respectively. #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 775
• The body functions as a sign surpassed toward meaning #expands (0.75)