The woman’s perpetual complaint expresses dependence, since she holds others responsible for her lot
Evidence
Worry expresses her mistrust of the given world; if it seems threatening, ready to sink into obscure catastrophes, it is because she does not feel happy in it. Most often, she is not resigned to being resigned; she knows what she is going through, she goes through it in spite of herself: she is woman without being asked; she does not dare revolt; she submits against her will; her attitude is a constant recrimination. Everyone who receives women’s confidences—doctors, priests, social workers—knows that complaint is the commonest mode of expression; together, women friends groan individually about their own ills and all together about the injustice of their lot, the world, and men in general. A free individual takes the blame for his failures on himself, he takes responsibility for them: but what happens to the woman comes from others, it is others who are responsible for her misfortune. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1748
Categorization
- XREF: Ibsen’s Nora and the doll-house dynamic; also the complaint-as-speech pattern in The Second Sex’s portrait of woman as Other connects to later feminist writing on women’s laments (e.g. Audre Lorde’s anger as speech). — connects to: Jealousy that targets the wrong rivals constricts the woman’s dependence further. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1880; Woman’s defining situation is being forced to assume herself as Other — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 64; Woman’s dependence is interiorized while man’s is only external. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1370 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Jealousy that targets the wrong rivals constricts the woman’s dependence further.
#expands(0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1880 - Women’s unique subordination rests on their failing to contest the One’s claim
#corroborates(0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 55 - Woman’s defining situation is being forced to assume herself as Other
#corroborates(0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 64 - Woman’s dependence is interiorized while man’s is only external.
#expands(0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1370