Woman experiences her body as both treacherous burden and prized artwork

Evidence

This ambivalence is marked by the way woman deals with her body. It is a burden: weakened by the species, bleeding every month, passively propagating, for her it is not the pure instrument of her grasp on the world but rather an opaque presence; it is not certain that it will give her pleasure, and it creates pains that tear her apart; it contains threats: she feels danger in her “insides.” Her body is “hysterical” because of the close connection between endocrine secretions and nervous and sympathetic systems commanding muscles and viscera; it expresses reactions the woman refuses to accept: in sobs, convulsions, and vomiting, her body escapes her, it betrays her; it is her most intimate reality, but it is a shameful reality that she keeps hidden. And yet it is her marvelous double; she contemplates it in the mirror with amazement; it is the promise of happiness, a work of art, a living statue; she shapes it, adorns it, displays it. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1762

Categorization

• XREF: Beauvoir’s account of the body as ‘the Other’ within woman herself resonates with Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the lived body and prefigures later feminist work on body alienation. — connects to: Woman is prized as yielding material that resists mastery enough to remain precious — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 376; Surrealist exaltation of woman still denies her subjectivity; she remains Other — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 605; Woman embodies Nature, whose ambivalence makes her both ally and enemy to man — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 324 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Explains the mechanism behind the medicalized concept of female ‘hysteria’ as endocrine/nervous-system connection, grounding it in the body’s refusal of alienated womanhood.

Broader Connections

• Woman embodies Nature, whose ambivalence makes her both ally and enemy to man #qualifies (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 324
• Woman’s contradictory image stems from being man’s inessential Other #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 413