Women’s struggle has shifted from imprisonment to demanding equal transcendence

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

In contrast to the nineteenth-century reform movement, which was grounded in an ideology of gender difference, late-twentieth-century “reforms” have relied on a “separate but equal” model. This “separate but equal” approach often has been applied uncritically, ironically resulting in demands for more repressive conditions in order to render women’s facilities “equal” to men’s. … It does not occur to her that a more productive version of feminism would also question the organization of state punishment for men as well and, in my opinion, would seriously consider the proposition that the institution as a whole— gendered as it is—calls for the kind of critique that might lead us to consider its abolition. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 197 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Feminist parity demands have ironically produced more repressive women’s prisons; Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714; Formalistic equality with male prisons makes women’s prisons more repressive, not less. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 197 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Feminist parity demands have ironically produced more repressive women’s prisons #complicates (0.85)
• Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714
• Formalistic equality with male prisons makes women’s prisons more repressive, not less. #complicates (0.80) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 197
• Freedom for men requires ending the subjugation of women #expands (0.78)
• Women’s oppression differs from class oppression because women share solidarity with their oppressors #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 147
• Woman’s complicity with male sovereignty arises from her own transcendence #expands (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 156
• Women’s liberation depends on liberating all oppressed strata simultaneously #expands (0.72) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 16