Woman’s aging shame stems from being an object for man’s mediation

Evidence

The mature man is engaged in more important enterprises than those of love; his sexual ardor is less pressing than in his youth; and as he is not expected to have the passive qualities of an object, the alteration of his face and body does not spoil his possibilities of seduction. By contrast, woman reaches her full sexual blossoming at about thirty-five, having finally overcome all her inhibitions: this is when her desires are the most intense and when she wants to satisfy them the most ardently; she has counted on her sexual attributes far more than man has; to keep her husband, to be assured of protection, and to succeed in most jobs she holds, she has to please; she has not been allowed a hold on the world except through man’s mediation: What will become of her when she no longer has a hold on him? This is what she anxiously wonders while she witnesses, powerless, the degradation of this object of flesh with which she is one; she fights; but dyes, peeling, and plastic surgery can never do more than prolong her dying youth. At least she can play tricks with the mirror. But when the inevitable, irreversible process starts, which is going to destroy in her the whole edifice constructed during puberty, she feels touched by the very inevitability of death. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1709

Categorization

• XREF: Directly extends the earlier ‘The Woman in Love’ and myth chapters: woman as object, her transcendence mediated through man. Also resonates with Sartre’s objectification in Being and Nothingness. — connects to: Shame at nakedness symbolizes the human condition of being seen as an object. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 784; Aging is perceived as woman’s betrayal because her body exists for man’s use. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 352; Woman’s contradictory image stems from being man’s inessential Other — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 413 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Shame precedes reflection and arises from an opaque self-relation #expands (0.88)
• Shame is fundamentally experienced in the presence of another person #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 659
• Aging women deny finitude and feel duped by a passively endured destiny #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1710
• Woman’s defining situation is being forced to assume herself as Other #corroborates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 64
• Being perceived as an object by another creates communal shame and alienation #expands (0.78)
• Both sexes implicitly center perspective on the male, making woman the object #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 681