Woman embodies Nature, whose ambivalence makes her both ally and enemy to man

Evidence

Man seeks the Other in woman as Nature and as his peer. But Nature inspires ambivalent feelings in man, as has been seen. He exploits it, but it crushes him; he is born from and he dies in it; it is the source of his being and the kingdom he bends to his will; it is a material envelope in which the soul is held prisoner, and it is the supreme reality; it is contingency and Idea, finitude and totality; it is that which opposes Spirit and himself. Both ally and enemy, it appears as the dark chaos from which life springs forth, as this very life, and as the beyond it reaches for: woman embodies nature as Mother, Spouse, and Idea; these figures are sometimes confounded and sometimes in opposition, and each has a double face. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 324

Categorization

• XREF: The Nature/is-Spirit binary here seeds the immanence/transcendence axis that organizes the rest of the book. — connects to: Woman’s subjugation symbolizes the mastery of nature that defines civilization — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 255; Male admiration of beauty hides fear and contempt for nature; Poetic tradition reduces woman’s body to a natural landscape for man to possess. (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Assimilating woman to mere nature is a prejudice, not a truth #contradicts (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 656
• Nature temporarily abolishes male supremacy for the independently-minded woman #qualifies (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1763
• Woman’s subordinate situation makes her lovable but not genuinely equal in man’s eyes. #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1930
• Woman’s apparent naturalness is itself a product of history #expands (0.75)