Women’s silence about pregnancy stems from their own unrecognized inner conflicts.

Evidence

This is one of the reasons why women are so secretive on this subject. Their silence comes in part from liking to surround an experience that is theirs alone in mystery; but they are also disconcerted by the contradictions and conflicts of which they themselves are the center. “The preoccupations of pregnancy are a dream that is forgotten as entirely as the dream of birth pains,” one woman said. These are complex truths that come to the fore in women and that they endeavor to bury in oblivion. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1433

Categorization

• CANDY: The quoted line comparing pregnancy preoccupations to forgotten dreams is a striking, tweetable fragment.
• XREF: connects to: Expressed attitudes toward pregnancy mask women’s contradictory and repressed inner feelings. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1433; Unacknowledged fear of motherhood can physiologically prevent conception. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1437; Pregnancy grants women a socially sanctioned justification for self-absorption and exemption from effort — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1465 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Black women’s silence on sexism stemmed from socialization that devalued their femaleness #exemplifies (0.80)
• Unacknowledged fear of motherhood can physiologically prevent conception. #qualifies (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1437
• Pregnancy grants women a socially sanctioned justification for self-absorption and exemption from effort #contradicts (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1465