Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited

Evidence

This is not a unique situation. American blacks, partially integrated into a civilization that nevertheless considers them an inferior caste, live it; what Bigger Thomas experiences with so much bitterness at the dawn of his life is this definitive inferiority, this cursed alterity inscribed in the color of his skin: he watches planes pass and knows that because he is black the sky is out of bounds for him. Because she is woman, the girl knows that the sea and the poles, a thousand adventures, a thousand joys, are forbidden to her: she is born on the wrong side. The great difference is that the blacks endure their lot in revolt—no privilege compensates for its severity—while for the woman her complicity is invited. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714

Categorization

• XREF: Directly engages Richard Wright’s Native Son; also anticipates the later feminist critiques of Beauvoir’s race analogy. — connects to: Women’s defenselessness functions as the legal title of their oppression; Shared complicity in oppressive systems sustains them through everyday banal gestures of conformity. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 930; Woman’s complicity with male sovereignty arises from her own transcendence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 156 (+12 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how does Beauvoir’s race-woman analogy age against later ‘Black feminism’ critiques of The Second Sex?
• SEED: Article angle: the analytical power and the problems of the ‘born on the wrong side’ analogy between racial and gendered alterity.

Broader Connections

• Women’s unique subordination rests on their failing to contest the One’s claim #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 55
• Women participate in benevolent sexism as strongly as men do #exemplifies (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 769