The pleasure of directing water is a victory over gravity, not penis symbolism

Evidence

I think, in agreement with Sartre’s and Bachelard’s theories, that it is not necessarily the assimilation of the hose with the penis that is the source of pleasure; every stream of water seems like a miracle, a defiance of gravity: directing or governing it means carrying off a little victory over natural laws; in any case, for the little boy there is a daily amusement that is impossible for his sisters. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 685

Categorization

• XREF: This is Beauvoir departing from Freudian penis-envy orthodoxy via Sartre and Bachelard — a key moment of situating herself against psychoanalysis within the Continental tradition.
• DEFINE: Illustrates Beauvoir’s method of rereading Freudian symbols through existentialist concepts like transcendence and the project of mastering nature.