Wifely devotion becomes tyranny because husbands refuse reciprocity

Evidence

Worst of all is that her devotion itself is exasperating; in her husband’s eyes, it changes into a tyranny from which he tries to escape; and yet it is he who imposes his presence on woman as her supreme, one justification; by marrying her, he obliges her to give herself to him completely; he does not accept the reciprocal obligation, which is to accept this gift. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1367

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The double-bind structure - devotion demanded then resented as tyranny - is a genuinely paradigm-shifting diagnosis of the husband’s duplicity.
• XREF: connects to: Marriage chains wives to ceaseless disposal of their own shared detritus — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1224; Marriage traps women in a love that increases as it is refused. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1264; Total dependence reduces a wife’s freedom to abstract interiority that cannot save her — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1355 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Supposed frigidity in marriage functions as a covert weapon against male domination #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1304