The same identity-internalizing move can either crush or liberate a person.

Evidence

By adopting the other person’s objectifying label as a substitute for his unselfconscious self, Genet was performing the same psychological contortion as the one Beauvoir had observed in women. She believed it put a strain on women all their lives, and made them hesitant and full of self-doubt. But Sartre saw Genet as performing the manoeuvre defiantly, reversing the effect: instead of keeping him down, his alienation gave him his escape. … This is why Sartre calls him a saint: where a saint transfigures suffering into sanctity, Genet transfigures oppression into freedom. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 695

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels and contrasts with Beauvoir’s analysis of women’s self-doubt — classic existentialism internal contrast worth holding together. — connects to: The oppressed internalize the oppressor’s consciousness into a divided self. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 112; Identity adopted as liberation can harden into a new form of imprisonment — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1078

Broader Connections

• Identity adopted as liberation can harden into a new form of imprisonment #exemplifies (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1078
• The oppressed internalize the oppressor’s consciousness into a divided self. #exemplifies (0.82) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 112