Uninstitutionalized relationships between women allow fuller self-exposure than heterosexual ones
Evidence
There are, however, certain circumstances that give these relations particular characteristics. They are not established by an institution or customs, nor regulated by conventions: they are lived more sincerely because of this. Men and women—even husband and wife—more or less play roles with each other, and woman, on whom the male always imposes some kind of directive, does so even more: exemplary virtue, charm, coquetry, childishness, or austerity; never in the presence of the husband and the lover does she feel fully herself; she does not show off to a woman friend, she has nothing to feign, they are too similar not to show themselves as they are. This similarity gives rise to the most complete intimacy. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1076
Categorization
- DEFINE: Beauvoir grounds her earlier definitional claim that woman plays roles before the male here in concrete causal mechanism.
- XREF: connects to: Lesbian relationships resist neat virile-feminine role divisions and mirror heterosexual pairings in their variety — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1075; Exploiting femininity to the extreme can paradoxically grant women near-masculine independence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1684; Sexual passion does not depend on female subordination or inequality — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1981 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Women’s isolation from each other blocks recognition that their subjectivity struggles are shared
#expands(0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 73 - Sexual passion does not depend on female subordination or inequality
#qualifies(0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1981 - Exploiting femininity to the extreme can paradoxically grant women near-masculine independence
#qualifies(0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1684 - Autonomous self-awareness structurally blocks feminine submission and spontaneous charm.
#complicates(0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1922