Woman’s subjugation symbolizes the mastery of nature that defines civilization

Evidence

Woman is not a being in her own right, a subject. She produces nothing but looks after those who do; she is a living monument to a long-vanished era when the domestic economy was self-contained. The division of labor imposed upon her by man brought her little that was worthwhile. She became the embodiment of the biological function, the image of nature, the subjugation of which constituted that civilization’s title to fame. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 255

Categorization

• DEFINE: Adorno defines woman’s social position as the living emblem of nature, whose subjugation underwrites the civilization project — a key conceptual move reframing patriarchy as ideology.
• XREF: Connects to the book’s central dialectic of Enlightenment: mastery of nature requires mastery of what is coded ‘natural’ (woman). Also echoes the later feminism of de Beauvoir’s ‘Second Sex.’ — connects to: Civilization’s bondage breeds longing that becomes worship of a transfigured nature; Conquering nature is mythically gendered as conquering woman; Female virtue is the broken form in which exploited nature enters male culture — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 256 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Conquering nature is mythically gendered as conquering woman #corroborates (0.95)
• Colonial power was symbolically encoded as masculine mastery over a feminized land #expands (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 619
• Female virtue is the broken form in which exploited nature enters male culture #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 256
• Woman embodies Nature, whose ambivalence makes her both ally and enemy to man #complicates (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 324