Women’s fertility makes them seem dangerously sacred while male sexuality is profane.

Evidence

But even the Wife was a dangerous prey. Demeter survives in Venus emerging from the waters, fresh foam, the blond harvest; appropriating woman for himself through the pleasure he derives from her, man awakens in her the suspicious powers of fertility; it is the same organ he penetrates that produces the child. This explains why man in all societies is protected against the feminine sex’s threats by so many taboos. There is no reciprocity as woman has nothing to fear from the male; his sex is considered secular, profane. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 353

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the asymmetry of taboo around female vs. male sexuality — why woman is sacred/dangerous and man profane/safe.
• XREF: Connects to structuralist anthropology (Lévi-Strauss, taboo theory) and to the secondary-quality/sacred-profane distinction that runs through later Continental thought. — connects to: Incest taboos and menstruation prohibitions both express man’s fear of feminine fertility — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 339; Reproductive bodies are feared as engines of demographic change.; Pregnancy and breastfeeding trigger derogation of women when death and animality are salient — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 603

Broader Connections

• Incest taboos and menstruation prohibitions both express man’s fear of feminine fertility #expands (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 339
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding trigger derogation of women when death and animality are salient #expands (0.80) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 603
• Reproductive bodies are feared as engines of demographic change. #complicates (0.78)