Woman’s life stages are sharply discontinuous while man’s aging is continuous

Evidence

The history of woman—because she is still trapped in her female functions—depends much more than man’s on her physiological destiny; and the arc of this destiny is more erratic, more discontinuous, than the masculine one. Every period of woman’s life is fixed and monotonous: but the passages from one stage to another are dangerously abrupt; they reveal themselves in far more decisive crises than those of the male: puberty, sexual initiation, menopause. While the male grows older continuously, the woman is brusquely stripped of her femininity; still young, she loses sexual attraction and fertility, from which, in society’s and her own eyes, she derives the justification of her existence and her chances of happiness: bereft of all future, she has approximately half of her adult life still to live. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1707

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the existentialist apparatus of situation and the body-as-situation from earlier in the book, and to the immanence/transcendence dichotomy animating the whole argument. — connects to: Aging women deny finitude and feel duped by a passively endured destiny — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1710; Sharp metaphors reveal cultural shifts in how women age and command space — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1035; Woman’s dependence is interiorized while man’s is only external. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1370 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the ‘dangerous age’ frame: the menopause crisis as socially and symbolically constructed rather than purely biological.

Broader Connections

• Age combined with gender denies women the respect aging grants men #corroborates (0.85)
• Aging women deny finitude and feel duped by a passively endured destiny #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1710
• Woman’s dependence is interiorized while man’s is only external. #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1370
• Sharp metaphors reveal cultural shifts in how women age and command space #complicates (0.72) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1035